THE Supreme Court has upheld Bassey Otu’s election as the Cross River state governor.
In its ruling on Friday, January 12, the court declared Otu the winner of the Mach 18, 2023 governorship polls.
Supreme Court Justice Helen Ogunwunmiju, who read out the lead judgment, dismissed the appeal filed by Otu’s opponent, Sandy Onor.
The court described Onor’s appeal as “without merit and a waste of judicial time and resources.”
During the elections held in March, Otu won 15 out of 18 local governments in the state and polled a total of 258,619 votes.
Onor, his closest competitor, garnered 179,636 votes during the elections but challenged Otu’s victory at the tribunal and the Appeal Court.
Both tribunal and Appeal Court had ruled in Otu’s favour, upholding his victory at the polls.
The tribunal ruled that he was duly elected as he was qualified to run for office and rejected the testimonies of some of Onor’s witnesses.
Dissatisfied, Onor headed to the Appeal Court, where the tribunal’s ruling was upheld.
The Court also held that the appellants did not prove the alleged conflict in the names of the secondary school attended by Otu and backed the rejection of some of the witnesses as they were described as being under Onor’s control.
Onor’s appeal was, therefore, dismissed by the Court of Appeal for lack of merit.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.