Former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, has maintained that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Cross River State governorship election, Senator (Prince) Bassey Otu, will emerge triumphant at the polls come 2023.
Ndoma-Egba, an ex-Chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and ardent supporter of Prince Otu’s guber aspiration, made the remarks while reacting to the court judgement that dismissed a suit instituted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its standard-bearer, Senator Sandy Onor, seeking the disqualification of Otu and his running mate, Hon. Peter Odey, from participating in the 2023 Cross River guber race.
Senator Onor and the PDP in an originating summons had alleged that Hon. Odey was not a member of the APC and has dual citizenship, and as such, was not qualified to run for any elective office in Nigeria.
The presiding Judge, Justice Rosemary Oghoghorie, in her ruling, said that counsel to the plaintiff could not convince the court sufficiently to prove their case, and she consequently, struck out the matter.
Ndoma-Egba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, while hailing the judgement in an interview, stated: “The judgement was to be expected, because, you are not a member of the APC, you are a member of another party, yet you are coming to complain of what the APC did within its party. So, they were rightfully described as meddlesome interlopers. It’s like me pokenosing into what is happening in your home. What is my locus? They don’t have the locus standi and that was why they were aptly described by the judge as meddlesome interlopers or busybodies.”
The erstwhile Cross River Central Senator, who has constantly emphasized the need for power to shift to Cross River South in 2023 and strongly feels that Otu is obviously the right man for the job, further noted that the verdict of the court reinforces the strength of the APC candidate, in the guber contest.
He said: “The judgement is reinforcing Otu’s strength. It’s a clear signal that victory awaits him come 2023 and I don’t think anybody can stand in his way.”
Prince Otu, the leading guber candidate in Cross River, represented Calabar Municipal/Odukpani Federal Constituency in the House of Reps between 2003 and 2011, and Cross River South in the Senate from 2011 to 2015, during which he held different committee chairmanship positions, made significant contributions to nation building and positively impacted on the lives of his constituents.
