By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

The governorship election in Cross River State Saturday was greeted by protests by indigenes of Day Spring in Bakassi Local Government Area of Cross River State as the people condemned their exclusion from the exercise.

But the state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ntufam Okpo Okon, said the issue in Bakassi had been on what constitutes Bakassi, adding that while some are canvassing that what constitutes Bakassi should be based on the Cross River state Law No. 7, others were supporting the Day Spring and Ikang.

Senator Liyel Imoke, the immediate past governor of the state and the candidate of the PDP, was the leading contender in the poll.

Okon said: “INEC chose to use Day Spring. What we have told our people is that let us work with INEC,” and that, after the exercise, they can follow the legal option.

No fewer than 6, 000 eligible voters, who gathered the Marina Beach in Calabar enroute the Day Spring Island, lamented that they had been disenfranchised following a court ruling that barred the Independent National Electoral Commission from conducting the exercise in the island.

The protesters, led by a former presidential adviser on National Assembly matters, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, wondered why they were suddenly disenfranchised by a court  order which came at the close of work on Friday.

A Federal High Court in Calabar, presided over by Justice Adetukumbo Ademola, had, on Friday, stopped the conduct of the poll and subsequent ones in accordance with ward delineation based on the current Bakassi LGA created pursuant to law No. 7 of Cross River State House of Assembly and not based on the ward delineation as existed before ceding of Bakassi to Cameroon.

Ex-Gov. Imoke

The suit No: FHC/CA/CS/21/2012 was instituted by Edet Etim Asuquo, Chief Antigha Cobham, Chief Bassey Etim and Chief Effiong Iman for themselves and on behalf of the Ikang people of Ikang Clan, Esighi Clan, Antigha Ene Eyo Clan and Edihi Idim Ikot Eyi Clan of Bakassi LGA against INEC and the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Cross River State.

But Ita-Giwa said, “Normally when there is election, the Bakassi people gather here to travel by the sea to Day Spring Island to go and vote. This is a ritual that we have been doing and we have done it three times. We crossed to Day Spring to vote during the national assembly, presidential and state assembly election in April 2011.

As bonafide Nigerians we have the right to exercise our franchise where we are registered but for some strange reason there is a twist of fate here. For this particular governorship election, we are experiencing what we would refer to as a ‘judiciary ambush’ in the sense that an injunction stopped INEC from going to conduct an election in Day Spring came was issued at about 4pm on Friday (February 24). There was not even an opportunity for it to be vacated and I believe that INEC feels they are obliged to abide by that injunction.”

Speaking on the issue, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Mr. Mike Igini, said the commission had to comply to the court order even when it is not happy with the injunction.

He, however, said INEC had immediately instituted a legal suit to address the issue, starting that the arguments by the claimants in his view were not lawful.

Low turnout
Meanwhile, the election itself was  characterized by low turnout as most of the registered voters stayed away.
While the PDP governorship running mate, Mr. Efiok Cobham, attributed the apathy to the purported court injunction granted by an Abuja High Court, the Labour Party governorship candidate, Mrs. Imah Nsah Adegoke, said the adjustment in the date of the election was a contributing factor as the people has lost faith in the INEC time table..

Fraud
The candidates of the Hope Democratic Party, HDP, Dr. Theo Onyuku, and the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Mrs. Mary Ekpere, in the poll alleged that the elections was marred by fraud.

Ekpere alleged that there were multiple thumb-printing in her polling unit, Bokomo, in Ikom town
to shortchanged her.

She also complained of voters apathy, stressing that out of about 1000 registered voters in her unit, only about 100 people were accredited for the exercise.

Onyuku said  he was going to reject the outcome in its entirety and described it as “a sham, a charade and blatant gang rape of democratic process in brazen broadlight.”
He claimed that there were violations of the electoral act with serial defilement of the electoral process by the PDP.

Controversy
The governorship  candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP,  Chief Patrick Okomiso, said that the chairman of  INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, lied by saying that there was no court order restraining the commission  from conducting the governorship election.

There had been newspaper reports that a federal high court sitting in Abuja after hearing the ex-parte motion brought by the ANPP candidate on alleged constitutional breaches on the date of the election granted an order restraining the commission from going on with the election Saturday.

However, addressing candidates and members of the 12 political parties contesting the governorship election in the state, Jega insisted that there was no such  order  and that the commission took the pain to go to the court that was said to have granted the injuction and was told by the judge that the order did not exist. Okomiso wondered why the INEC chairman should deny knowledge of the court order.