From Judex Okoro, Calabar
 
The legal battle over who is the authentic governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) has resumed at Federal High Court Calabar with Sen John Owan Enoh questioning the declaration and subsequent submission of Sen Bassey Edet Otu as the party’s governorship candidate.
Shortly after the May 26, 2022 Cross River State governorship primaries, one aspirant, Sen John Owan Enoh, instituted a case in  a Federal High Court, Calabar in Suit No.FHC/CA/061/2022 between him and APC, INEC and Sen Bassey Edet Otu challenged the process that threw up Bassey Edet Otu as the governorship candidate.
Owan wants the Court to determine whether  “Bassey Otu was qualified to participate in the APC May 26, 2022 in Cross River State governorship primaries having not been cleared by the Screening Committee of the party and with regard to the provisions of Articles 3, 14.15, 16 and 19 (6) of the Constitution of the APC for the process of nomination of candidates and pursuant to Section 84(3) of the Electoral Act and Section 177 of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, 1999.”
Owan further wants the Court to determine whether Otu, “having been disqualified by the Screening Committee and
Screening Appeal Committee for questionable academic credentials and failure to produce his first school leaving certificate nor his West African
School Certificates, ought to have participated in the election primaries.
“To determine whether the organising secretary has overriding power to clear the Bassey Otu, who was disqualified by the Screening Committee and the Screening Appeal Committee, being the bodies responsible for the clearance of aspirants
for governorship primaries and whether such clearance by an individual to participate in the party governorship primaries did not constitute a breach of the Constitution of the APC.”
 
At the resumption of hearing at Federal High Calabar on Wednesday, counsels to both Enoh and Otu, Awa Kalu (SAN) and Mike Ozekhone (SAN) respectively, addressed court on the matter.
 
Council to Sen. John Owan Enoh, Awa Kalu (SAN), argued that to be qualified to run for party primaries, the aspirants must be careened by the screening committee set up by the second defendant (APC) and cleared to run for party primaries, which is a major criterion for aspirants participation in party primaries. 
 
He further argued that,”Our submission is that, based on the documents available to us, the third defendant (Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu), has not showed that he was fully cleared after screening and the plaintiff hasn’t equally indication that there was an appeal to the screening committee from the third defendant.”
 
The counsel to the third defendant (Prince Bassey Otu), Mike Ozekhone (SAN), kicked that counsel to the plaintiff Sen. Enoh could not bring in a witness from the West African Examination Council (WAEC), without telling the Court why he is bringing a witness from WAEC, what conflict he wanted to resolve by the witness as required by law.
 
Ozekhone argued that Order 4 Room 1 of the Federal High Court pre-election practice direction makes it clear that you can only come to court by way of originating Summons, which must be brought by way of affidavit evidence.
 
According to him, counsel to the plaintiff, Sen. Enoh, cannot “now come suddenly, to bring in oral evidence by calling someone from WAEC to come and testify, we don’t know what he wants to testify about; but the law is that before he can even be allowed to testify, he must first show the contradiction he wants to address, which he has not showed.”
 
Addressing newmen after the court proceedings, Ozekhone
said: “Today the proceedings in the case of Senator John Owan Enoh, against Senator Bessey Otu, the man who defeated the plaintiff Senator Enoh, with a whooping 877 votes, while Senator John Owan Enoh got a miserable 84 votes; a difference of over 8 hundreds votes. 
 
“The law is that, he cannot now come suddenly, to bring in oral evidence by calling someone from WAEC to come and testify, we don’t know what he wants to testify about; but the law is that before he can even be allowed to testify, he must first show the contradiction he wants to address, which he has not showed.
 
“He cannot call oral evidence in  after the matter started by originating Summons. resulting from these arguments, Enoh’s counsel said he wasn’t ready to respond to my submission, and asked for a short date. So the court has granted us a short adjournment to put our thoughts in writing, where we will sight the cases of Siku Ade and others,” he explained.
 
After listening to both counsels’ arguments, the presiding judge, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, adjourned tje matter toThursday September 8,2022, to allow parties produce their thoughts on the matter just as as hearing would continue.