Mixed reactions trail tribunal judgments in C’River

Mixed reactions have trailed the judgement of the Election Petition Tribunal in Cross River State.

The panel has concluded her sitting, delivering 25 judgements.

Of the 25 judgments, 24 was favourable to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), while one was favourable to the All Progressive Congress (APC).

The only petition of APC that was successful was that of Abi State Constituency where the tribunal nullified the election and ordered a re-run for the House of Assembly seat, presently occupied by a member of the PDP.

The APC, however, lost other petitions before the tribunal including the one which challenged the election of the only National Assembly member in the state, who is a member of the APC.

The PDP had welcomed the judgments that confirmed the victory of the party and their candidates.

Speaking shortly after the judgment, which affirmed the election of Governor Ben Ayade, the Chairman of the PDP, Ntufam Edim Inok, said: “We welcome the judgment. The governor, Prof. Ben Ayade has always called on Cross Riverians to come to join hands with him to move the state forward.” This is our message to the opposition.

The Chief of Staff to the Governor, Martins Orim, said: after the judgment and saying, “we expected victory because the petitioner was not challenging the validity of the victory of the governor in the election. Governor Ayade was duly elected by the people of Cross River State.”

However, the APC in a statement by the Publicity Secretary, Mr. Bassey Ita, said: “We consider that the judgment regarding the Abi State Constituency elections which the tribunal declared as inconclusive with a consequential order for a rerun in 15 polling units was right and valid”.

He added: “Incidentally, previous verdicts of the Tribunal which threw out our petitions especially on jurisdictions were fraught with errors and were defectively contradictory in some cases. The petition of Mr. Iwara Iwara, our Assembly Candidate in Abi State Constituency for instance who prayed for a rerun following his exclusion from the March 11, 2019, Assembly polls and was granted was after all premised on the same issue of exclusion in which most of our candidates’ petitions were based”.

A group, Cross River Youth Vanguard for Justice, in a statement by chairman and secretary John Ekanem and Mr Takon Ebonja, said: “We have watched with keen interest all the proceedings and judgments of the three Election Petition Tribunals that sat in Cross River State and have come to the conclusion that the right things were not done legally”.