There has been heightened tension across the Cross River State, as the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in the State, will on Tuesday deliver judgment on the petition filed by Prof. Sandy Onor of the Peoples Democratic Party, against the victory of Sen. Bassey Otu of the All Progressives Congress.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Secretary of the tribunal, Mr Akawu Bambu, in Calabar on Sunday.
It would be recalled that Otu was declared the winner of the March 18 election in the State, after polling 258,619 votes to defeat his opponent, Onor who scored 179,636 votes.
However, the suit, No. EPT/CR/GOV/02/2023, was jointly instituted by Onor and the PDP, to challenge the APC candidate’s victory.
The Counsel to Onor and Otu, Mr. J.Y. Musa, SAN and Prof. Mike Ozekhone, SAN, respectively, have however presented their written addresses and were adopted by the three-man tribunal, handling the portions.
Musa in his final written address, told the court that evidence extracted under cross-examination of the respondents to strengthen the case of their petition and also confirmed the misconception of the evidence presented by the second and third respondents (Governor Otu and Peter Odey).
However, Onor closed his case after calling some witnesses, while Otu called also 10 witnesses, to solidify his defence.
The tribunal of three-man justices, led by Justice Oken Inneh had earlier reserved judgment following the adoption of written addresses by both parties on August 13.
Musa maintained that the case of the petitioners is not allegations of forgery against any of the respondents (Otu and Odey), and so all the authorities they cited to the effect that they needed to call witnesses from institutions are non-sequitur, their case is that the second and third respondents lied on oath.
He pressed further that the second and third respondents (Otu and Odey) brought documents to show that they forged documents.
