Appeal Court Affirms Bassey Otu as APC Governorship Candidate in Cross River

The court of appeal sitting in Calabar, the Cross River capital, has affirmed Bassey Otu as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.

Ben Ayade, governor of Cross River, is backing the former senator representing Cross River south for the position of governor in the 2023 elections.

A screening panel of the All Progressives Congress (APC) disqualified Otu from contesting in the party’s governorship primary owing to his alleged inability to provide proof of his educational qualifications.

Some APC members also alleged that Otu was convicted of fraud and is not eligible to run for office.

Subsequently, Owan Enoh, a governorship aspirant, asked the court to disqualify the former senator as the APC candidate in the state on some of the aforementioned grounds.

However, in October, Ijeoma Ojukwu, presiding judge of a federal high court, held that the plaintiff failed to substantiate the allegations against the former senator.

Delivering judgment on Thursday in the appeal marked CA/C/337/22, filed by Enoh, a three-member panel of the court dismissed the appeal for lacking merit.