— As PDP insists is a stolen mandate, head for appeal
PATRICK ABANG, Calabar –
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Cross River State has expressed excitement and congratulated the State Governor, Ben Ayade over his victory at the Federal High Court.
The party in a statement by the Publicity Secretary, Mr Erasmus Ekpang described the victory of the governor as the victory for the Nigerian constitution.
The Party noted that the digital Governor of the State is the Industrialisation icon and truly God’s sent to Cross River State, whose good heart will always give him victory.
He described the governor as a man with a wonderful heart and referred to the him as the anointed leader and Governor of the Party and the State, saying “touch not my anointed”.
It would be recalled that, the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday had dismissed a suit by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to declare vacant the seat of Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade.
Justice Taiwo Taiwo cited the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Enugu that defection is not a ground for removal from office.
Justice Taiwo noted that the removal of a sitting Governor and his Deputy can only be done in line with constitutional provisions.
Also, reacting to the court judgement, the State Chairman of PDP, Vena Ikem thanked all his teaming supporters for the courageous support for the Party despite the provocation inflicted on us by unscrupulous elements that were mistakenly given the mandate of the party in the past and the unfortunate turn of events.
According to the PDP, the judgment by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja is yet another successful exploration of the dept of legal jurisprudence in uncharted territory such as we have at hand.
“Let me assure you that this judgment is only a step in the overall picture envisaged by our lawyers when they took steps to explore this legal option which has the potential to take both the Judiciary and indeed our entire democracy to another level entirely”
“We will continue to support our lawyers as they lead us in this battle for the soul of our democracy and good governance of our people”
“It will remain a civilized struggle and an intellectual exploration of the limits and vastness of our jurisprudence in this untested territory. We will be studying the judgment in its entirety with the certainty of appealing to the next Court of Law until Justice is manifestly done”
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