A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and former Senate Leader, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, has sent his felicitations to the governor of Cross River State, Senator (Prince) Bassey Edet Otu, for his triumph at the tribunal, where his election by Cross Riverians on March 18, 2023 was further affirmed.
Ndoma-Egba, a former Chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, who was the secretary of the Campaign Planning Directorate of the defunct APC Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, also congratulated the APC family in Cross River State for Otu’s tribunal victory.
The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Cross River State on Tuesday, dismissed, for lack of merit, the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and its candidate, Senator Sandy Onor, against the election of Governor Otu of APC.
Reacting to the tribunal ruling in favour of Otu, popularly known as Sweet Prince, Ndoma-Egba, the erstwhile senator who represented Cross River Central senatorial district said, “I wholeheartedly congratulate, His Excellency, Senator Bassey Otu, on his tribunal victory. It was an expected victory. I equally rejoice with the All Progressives Congress in Cross River State and Cross Riverians for the victory.
“It was a victory long foretold because going to court by the PDP was a needless and fruitless adventure. Most of the issues that they raised in their petition at the tribunal had already being litigated upon. And so, it was clear from the onset that they were not going to make any headway with what they presented to the election tribunal.”
The legal luminary added that “with this irritation removed now, I believe that the governor will now concentrate fully on the work he was elected to do. The people of Cross River will now begin to see events and activities from the governor, because the tribunal case as unmeritorious as it was, was still an irritation. It was a major irritation and a major distraction. So now that the irritation has been removed, they will see more urgent and better performance by the governor.”
Calling on the opposition members in the state to, at this point, join hands with the governor to move Cross River forward, Ndoma-Egba said, “I want to just tell them (the opposition members) to let matters lie where they are and join Governor Otu in moving the state forward. The state is facing major challenges and it needs everybody, every hand to be on deck for us to make the much needed progress. So, I will advise them to just let matters lie where they are and wait for another time to try again.”
Arguing that appealing the judgement, which he described as sound and in order, will not change anything, Ndoma-Egba averred that the issues raised by the PDP and its candidate were well thrashed out by the three-man tribunal panel.
