Tribunal Dismisses NNPP’s Petition Against Cross River Governor

Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Calabar, the Cross River State capital has dismissed the petition filled by the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), against the All Progressives Congress (APC), candidate and governor of the state, Bassey Otu

The party and its governorship candidate, Ambassador Wilfred Bonse had approached the tribunal seeking the nullification of  just concluded polls won by Otu.

NNPP which filed its petition on April 10, 2023, had in  suit number: EPT/CR/GOV/08/2023 hinged its petition on substantial non-compliance with the 2022 Electoral Act.

NNPP appealed for a declaration by the court that the non- inclusion of the party’s logo on the ballot paper used for the election was unlawful.

The party, which asked the tribunal to prompt the electoral umpire, the Independent  National Electoral Commission (INEC), to conduct fresh governorship polls since the election it conducted and brought in the APC candidate as shame.

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The party stated that among the issues which sparked up anger of members include, the non-inclusion of the party’s logo by INEC and  sought for an order nullifying the election  in line with an extant judgment by the Federal High Court and  Appeal Court.

NNPP called for withdrawal of the certificate of return that INEC  issued to the Cross River State governor as questionable.

Meanwhile, in a unanimous judgment, Justice Oken Inneh stated that the petitioners failed to establish that their candidate was lawfully excluded and dismissed the case in its entirety.

The judge stressed that the petitioners only called two witnesses out of over 3000 pooling units and their testimonies were inconsistent.

Justice Ineh averred that NNPP did not name the candidate who was substituted and INEC did not monitor its primary in line with the Electoral Act.

The tribunal awarded a cost of N1 million each in favour of all the respondents.