A Federal High Court sitting in Calabar, Cross River State, yesterday declared Sen. Bassey Otu qualified to remain the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu made the declaration while delivering judgment in a suit brought before her by Sen. Owan Enoh seeking to disqualify Sen. Otu as the APC standard-bearer.
She said: “A candidate contesting the position of governor must be a Nigerian, meet the stipulated age requirement and have basic qualification according to the constitution. The matter of determination of governorship candidate of a political party is and still remains the right of a party.”
The judgment said in the seven- paragraph affidavit submitted by the plaintiffs, the allegation of forgery could not be established.
Justice Ojukwu said: “The plaintiff failed to provide what constituted or constitutes the false information provided by the third defendant, who is the candidate of his party in his affidavit or any document submitted as contained in the constitutional requirement.
“There is nowhere in the seven-paragraph affidavit submitted by the plaintiff that the third defendant submitted any false information.
“The allegation of forgery was not established in any manner.
“None of the documents or certificates submitted by the third defendant gave evidence of forgery.
“I have carefully perused the averments and find no evidence of false information.
“The party that alleges false information according to Section 29:5 of the Electoral Act has the onus to prove, but this was not discharged.
“For the court to rule otherwise, there must be cogent evidence to the contrary, but in this case there is none that is presented before this court.”