Cross River: APC senatorial aspirant rejects Tinubu’s reconciliatory moves, heads for Supreme Court

The Cross River All Progressives Congress (APC) central senatorial district aspirant, Mary Ekpere, has headed for Supreme Court challenging the candidacy of Hon William Eteng even as the President-elect, Alh. Bola Tinubu, had called on all parties to drop litigations.

Tinubu had at the town hall meeting held in Calabar on December 20, 2022, appealed to her and other aggrieved aspirants to drop all court cases for the sake of peace and unity of the party.

Against this background, Sen. John Owan Enoh had pulled out of court while Mary rejected the intervention and headed back for High and Appeal courts to seek for disqualification of Eteng William, who was declared the authentic candidate of the party.

The High Court had ordered a fresh primary following the cancellation of the earlier one conducted in May 28, 2022. The court had ruled that the participation of Jonah Eteng for the first or the earlier primary election was in breach of Section 65 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution of ab initio and as such the Eteng can no longer lawfully participate in the fresh election of December 7, 2022.

But shortly after the fresh primary, Ekpere again challenged the outcome in a suit No.

FHC/A45|CS/2377/2022 between Mary Ekpere vs Jonah Eteng Williams and 3 others, Ekpere, through her counsel, B.J Akomolafe, SAN, seeking automatic disqualification of Eteng Williams from participating in the fresh primary election of the Cross River state central senatorial district which was conducted on December 17, 2022 to elect its candidate in respect of the general election of 2023 based on earlier Abuja High judgment presided over by Justice Fadima Murtala Aminu in Suit No. FHCFHC/ABJ/CS/885/2022.

The counsel is also asked the court to declare the participation of Prof. John Inyang in the fresh primary as unlawful, null and void since he was ab initio not qualified to participate in the fresh election because he has already withdrawn from the race just as he sought for the Nullification and invalidation of John Inyang’s 27 votes recorded for him during the election.

She is further sought for the nullification and invalidation of the 270 votes recorded for Eteng and replace and/or substitute same with the name of Mary Ekpere as the candidate of the party for senatorial election as well as declare Mary Ekpere as The lawful candidate of the party for the central senatorial election.

She lost the case at Federal High and proceeded with the initial case to the Court of Appeal. On February 13, a definite judgment was given in favour of the APC Senatorial candidate and now Senator-elect, Rt. Hon. Eteng Jonah Williams.

Again not satisfied, Mary Ekpere had proceeded to Supreme Court for final determination of the case.

Expressing concern over the litigation and utter disregard for the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a chieftain of APC, from central senatorial district, John Agbor, said it is unfortunate that party members are disobeying the leadership for their selfish interest.

According to Agbor, “stakeholders should rise up and condemn the action of Bar Mary Ekpere and allow peace to reign. We cannot continue to fight among ourselves even when we have won elections. Now is the time to come together and work for the success of the party.”