The Cross River National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday in Calabar struck out the petition filed by former Senate Leader, Sen. Victor Ndoma Egba, against the election of Sen. Sandy Onor for Cross River Central senatorial district in the March 2019 general election.
Ndoma Egba had asked the tribunal to cancel the election citing his exclusion as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Justice Vincent Agbata in a 39-minute judgment, described the petition as a pre-election matter and therefore struck out the case.
Delivering Judgment, the Tribunal said: “The fact of the matter is simple and straight forward and the second petitioner (APC) could not put her ax together with party squabbles leading to the Federal High Court suit and the Appeal Court judgment that led to different interpretations by different parties.”
Agbata said at the end of the day the tribunal identified three issues for consideration and that was whether the petitioner was a valid candidate, whether with facts before the tribunal if INEC excluded Ndoma-Egba and whether the issues that arose were pre-election matter or not.
According to him, the appeal court had asked all parties to maintain status quo but not status quo ante hence “the order by the High Court was still valid and subsisting and INEC acted in obedience to the court order and could not have acted otherwise” because the appeal court did not vacate the order of the lower court “and the court order must be obeyed until it is discharged…the removal of the name of the petitioner cannot be declared as unlawful.
“The said National Assembly election conducted on February 23, without the first petitioner was in order and it falls within the realm of pre-election matter. This tribunal lacks jurisdiction to entertain this matter because it is a pre-election matter,” adding with the resolution of the third issue “the petition is hereby struck out…the said offending removal by INEC was lawfully taken.”
In his reaction, counsel to Onor, Patrick Agi, said the judgment has added value to jurisprudence procedure.
In his reaction, Ndoma-Egba said: “The tribunal has made its pronouncements. We believe that there are very many loose ends that were not addressed. They hinged their judgment on the fact that there was a court order. That issue was extensively addressed during the trial. INEC was not a party to that court order. I was not a party to the court order, so how come we are expected to be bound by the order?”
He appealed to his supporters to remain calm, saying when you look at a glass, the process of making glass, the ordinary glass passes through a certain level of heat, but for one to come out as crystal, one has to pass through heat. “So we are on our journey to becoming crystal….What the tribunal has done is to completely exonerate INEC. That is what they have done in this case”
Equally reacting, counsel to Onor, Mr Patrick Akan, said: “I must say that the judgement has added value to jurisprudence procedure, I thank you so much.”