Ayade: Cross River PDP Vows To Appeal Court Judgment
The Cross River State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has vowed to upturn the judgment of a high court in Abuja presided over by Justice Taiwo Taiwo, which refused to sack the state governor, Ben Ayade and his deputy, Ivara Esu, for defecting from the PDP to All Progressives Congress.
The state Chairman of the PDP, Venatius Ikem, in a statement titled ‘Court Judgment: Re: PDP’s Stolen mandate…’ said, “I want to use this opportunity to once again thank all our teeming supporters for the courageous support for the party despite the provocation inflicted on us by unscrupulous elements that were mistakenly given the mandate of the party in the past and the unfortunate turn of events.
“The judgment of yesterday (Thursday) by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja is yet another successful exploration of the depth of legal jurisprudence in uncharted territory such as we have at hand.
“Let me assure you that this judgment is only a step in the overall picture envisaged by our lawyers when they took steps to explore this legal option which has the potential to take both the judiciary and indeed our entire democracy to another level entirely.”
He said they will continue to support their lawyers “as they lead us in this battle for the soul of our democracy and good governance of our people.
“It will remain a civilised struggle and an intellectual exploration of the limits and vastness of our jurisprudence in this untested territory. We will be studying the judgment in its entirety with the certainty of appealing to the next court of law until justice is manifestly done.”
Ikem urged the party members to be consoled in the fact that as an opposition party they have “refused to let them sleep well with our stolen mandate and will continue to keep them sleepless for the remainder of the tenure which they shamelessly flaunt at us who made it happen.
“We know they now regret their ill-fated adventure but we will continue to drive the message home that it was the PDP that was elected to govern our people in 2019 because our people are PDP, body and soul.”
He urged the party members not to be dampened by temporary setbacks but to remain focused on the bigger picture which will only birth after the Supreme Court gives its verdict on all issues related hereto.
