Cross River Guber 2023: Otu-Odey wins at Appeal Court
An Appeal Court, Calabar judicial division has struck out an appeal brought before it by Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Sandy Ojang Onor, governorship candidate of the party against All Progressives Congress APC as 1st respondent, Prince Bassey Otu and Hon. Peter Odey as 2nd and 3rd respondent, respectively for lack of merits.
The court has also awarded a cost of Five Hundred Thousand Naira against the appellant.
It could be recalled that before now the appellant, the PDP and Sandy Onor had filed an appeal in suit no. CA/c/392/2022 challenging the judgement of a Federal High Court over the same matter which was also thrown out for lack of merits.
They are challenging the Nationality status of Hon Odey, and his eligibility to run for the position of a Deputy Governorship candidate for APC in the state because he did not officially resign from the PDP and then he swore an oath of allegiance to the King of the United Kingdom
In a unanimous judgement by the three justices, R . C Agbo, I . F Omoleye, and B.B Aliyu. Justice O.F Omoleye who read the judgement on behalf of other justices submitted that on the issue of membership of a political party, the appellant has no business in the affairs of another political party and upheld the decision of the trial court, maintaining that the issue of political party membership was not justiceable therefore, the court lacked the jurisdiction to determine it.
When commenting on the judgement, the counsel to the Appellant, First Baba Isa said he would wait until he gets a copy of the judgement and then would advise his client accordingly, adding that the appeal court is not the final court in this matter.
“This is not the final court in this matter, the supreme court is the final court and it’s only the client that has the final say, whether to stop here or to go to the supreme court he added”.
But council to the respondents Benson Egbano who stood in for the lead counsel Chief Mike Ozekome SAN commended the justices for what he described as a sound judgement.
“The judgement was a very sound one in many aspects because it was a unanimous decision and all the matters were resolved in favour of APC and the Governorship candidate, prince Bassey Edet Otu and Deputy Governorship candidate Hon peter Odey, it is worthy to note that the court made a very sound pronouncement on the cost of 500,000 Naira against PDP and Sandy Onor in the said matter” Egbeno explained.
