Cross River guber poll panel begins sitting in Calabar

The three-man petitions tribunal for the governorship/ national and state assembly elections yesterday began sitting in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.

The panel granted eight of the 30 ex-parte applications filed before it.

The chairman, Justice Vincent Agbata, promised that they would be “transparent, fair and firm in their dealings with all parties”, warning that the panel members would not welcome private or any form of meetings outside the open sitting.

The other members are Justices Isha Kunda and Abubakar Bello.

One of the eight applications granted was an order of substituted service by Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba and the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Ntufam Sandy Ojang Onor and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Four petitions were received on the senatorial polls – three from the APC and one from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) while the House of Representatives contests elicited eight with the APC accounting for six, one for the PDP, and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) also getting one.

The state legislative elections witnessed 16 petitions filed by candidates of the APC.