Godwin AJOM, Calabar
Supporters of Senator John Owan Enoh and those of Prince Bassey Otu are being kept in suspense by the Federal High Court, Calabar, which is currently hearing the suit filed by Owan Enoh, over the submission of the name of Otu as the APC gubernatorial candidate.
The supporters had hoped that after Wednesday’s hearing, a date for judgement would have been taken by the court, following earlier expectation that Wednesday was supposed to be for final addresses.
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The presiding judge, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu haa on Wednesday September 7, 2022 adjourned hearing to September 8. The matter with suit number FHC/CA/CS/95/2022 is between APC Governorship aspirant Senator John Owan Enoh against Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), All Progressive Congress (APC) and Governorship candidate, Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu.
Arguments on the matter are on the grounds of aspirants screening, academic certificates and APC screening committee clearance.
Counsel to Senator John Owan Enoh, Awa Kalu (SAN), argued that to be qualified to run for party primaries, the aspirants must be screened by the screening committee set up by the second defendant (APC) and cleared to run for party primaries, which is a major criterion for aspirants participation in party primaries.
He further argued that “our submission is that, based on the documents available to us, the third defendant (Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu), has not showed that he was fully cleared after screening and the plaintiff hasn’t equally indicated that there was an appeal to the screening committee from the third defendant.”
Addressing newsmen at the end of hearing on Tuesday at the court premises, counsel to Otu, Mike Ozekhone ,SAN, said “today the proceedings in the case of Senator John Owan Enoh, against Senator Bessey Otu, the man who defeated the plaintiff Senator Enoh, with a whooping 877 votes, while Senator John Owan Enoh got a miserable 84 votes; a difference of over 800 votes.
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“The case came up today, and when the counsel to the plaintiff Senator Enoh started submitting, he brought in a witness from the West African Examination Counsel (WAEC), without telling the Court why he is bringing a witness from WAEC, what conflict he wanted to resolve by the witness as required by law.
“Meanwhile , order 4 rule 1 of the Federal High Court pre-election practice direction makes it clear that you can only come to court by way of originating Summons, which must be brought by way of affidavit evidence.
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“The law is that, he cannot now come suddenly, to bring in oral evidence by calling someone from WAEC to come and testify, we don’t know what he wants to testify about; but the law is that before he can even be allowed to testify, he must first show the contradiction he wants to address, which he has not showed.
“He cannot call oral evidence in after the matter started by originating Summons. resulting from these arguments, Enoh’s counsel said he wasn’t ready to respond to my submission, and asked for a short date. So the court has granted us a short adjournment to put our thoughts in writing, where we will sight the cases of Siku Ade and others.”
Following the arguments of the third defendant against counsel to Senator Enoh, on the grounds of originating summons, the judge adjourned the case to Thursday September 8,2022, to for continuation of hearing.
