From Judex Okoro, Calabar
The Cross River State Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Venatius Ikem, Esq, has stated that the partt will certainly appeal the Federal High Court judgment saying that Governor Ben Ayade and the Deputy Governor, Prof Ivara Esu, cannot be removed from office for defecting to APC.
Ayade had defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thilursday, May 20, 2021 following a power tussles over who controls the party structures in the state.
The Federal High Court siting in Abuja and presided over byJustice Taiwo Taiwo had on Thursday, April 7, 2022 dismissed a suit by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to declare vacant the seat of Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade.
Justice Taiwo cited the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Enugu that defection is not a ground for removal from office, noting that the removal of a sitting Governor and his Deputy can only be done in line with constitutional provisions.
Thw Judge on the principle of stare decisis, a doctrine that courts will adhere to precedent in making their decisions.
Reacting, Ikem said: “We will be studying the judgment in its entirety with the certainty of appealing to the next Court of Law until Justice is manifestly done.
“I want to use this opportunity to once again thank all our teaming supporters for the courageous support for the Party despite the provocation inflicted on us by unscrupulous elements that were mistakenly given the mandate of the party in the past and the unfortunate turn of events.
“The judgment of yesterday by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja is yet another successful exploration of the dept of legal jurisprudence in uncharted territory such as we have at hand.
“Let me assure you that this judgment is only a step in the overall picture envisaged by our lawyers when they took steps to explore this legal option which has the potential to take both the Judiciary and indeed our entire democracy to another level entirely.
“We will continue to support our lawyers as they lead us in this battle for the soul of our democracy and good governance of our people.
“It will remain a civilized struggle and an intellectual exploration of the limits and vastness of our jurisprudence in this untested territory. We will be studying the judgment in its entirety with the certainty of appealing to the next Court of Law until Justice is manifestly done,” he stated.
Urging members to keep faith with the the party, the Chairman said: “APC would not sleep well with our stolen mandate and will continue to keep them sleepless for the remainder of the tenure which they shamelessly flaunt at us who made it happen.”
He argued that a few of them who defected might be regreting their “ill-fated adventure”, insisting that It “was the PDP that was elected to govern our people in 2019 because our people are PDP, body and soul.”
