The senator representing Cross River Central Senatorial District and governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Sandy Ojang Onor, has affirmed that the Cross River State House of Assembly is currently “null and void ab initio”, and that “the house cannot enact legally binding resolutions and laws until the courts pronounce otherwise.”
The PDP governorship candidate made the clarification in Calabar on Saturday while addressing journalists at a Press Conference in the company of Fred Osim, a member representing Ikom 1 state constituency, in the Cross River State House of Assembly and the southern senatorial candidate Ntufam Ekpo Okon, amongst others.
The senator, who lashed the state government for the recent appointment and inauguration of the executive body of The Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC), described the action as illegal.
According to him, “In any case, in the eyes of the law, there is no House Of Assembly in Cross River State, and anything that carries the imprimatur of this Assembly is null and void ab initio.
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“Until the courts pronounce otherwise, the House of Assembly as currently constituted cannot enact legally binding resolutions and laws. In the eyes of the law, the state House of Assembly is in Abeyance and therefore cannot confirm the governors’ appointees into the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission.
“So members of the commission as announced and supposedly confirmed are a product of illegality; hence they lack the legal powers to carry out that all-important state assignment (the proposed Cross River state 2023 LGA elections),” he explained.
Recall that the CROSIEC chairman, professor Mike Ushie had addressed a press briefing and a brief interview on May 30, announcing a hundred days timeline for the conduct of state-wide local government elections in Cross River. Where he said the state election body was constituted and confirmed by the state House of Assembly prior to May 30.
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