By Abasi Ita, Calabar
The People Democratic Party Governorship Candidate in Cross River State, Senator Sandy Onor has concluded the defense of the petition he filed at the governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Calabar.
Lead counsel to Onor, Dr Joshua Yusuf concluded the case today after inviting four witnesses prominent among them a London-based Immigration Expert, Olusegun Thompson.
Addressing newsmen after the session, Dr Yusuf who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, opined that the decision to close the case was a strategic, precise, and viable option for the team given the essence of time in the legal tussle.
He explained that “We called two additional witnesses for the petitioners after which we rounded up our case today. Our case hinges essentially on the qualification of *the* Governor and the Deputy Governor.”
“It’s all about strategy, we met and resolved that we should adopt this strategy as it is the better and faster route for us and we are hopeful. he posited.
Also speaking, counsel to the respondents, Kimasuade Edun SAN, who stood in for the lead counsel Mike Ozekhome SAN, stated that the petitioners had ten days to call their witnesses but since they have decided to close their case, they, on their part now needs some time to also gather their witnesses.
During proceedings today, the petitioner handed over two more documents to the tribunal intended to prove the validity of their case.
The documents included the British Nationality Act of 1981, Citizenship Oath/Pledge, Home Office Form AN4-Application for Naturalization as a British Citizen, and the Nationality, Immigration, and Asylum Act of 2002.
Olusegun Thompson, an Immigration Law expert and one of the subpoenaed witnesses to Senator Onor of the PDP, testified on oath to draw the attention of the Tribunal to the British Citizenship status of the third respondent.
During cross-examination by INEC counsel, K. O Balogun, he revealed that under Section 42(2) of the British Naturalization Act, every qualified applicant must take the Oath of Allegiance before his British Citizenship is issued.
He averred that the third respondent already said he has a waiver from taking the Oath through his form EC9 but to his knowledge, nobody has ever been granted such a waiver.
On his part, the legal adviser to the PDP and fourth witness of the petitioner, Ikpi Urbana Esq disclosed that the third respondent is still a member of the PDP and has yet to submit any resignation letter to the PDP
Ubana revealed that the third respondent did not file any application for exemption from signing the Oath of Allegiance.
In his words”Immediately you subscribe to the British Citizenship, you swear to an Oath of Allegiance but the third respondent has neither presented nor explained if he had a waiver”
Meanwhile, the chairman of the tribunal Justice Okeh Inneh has given the defendant four days with effect from Monday, July 17 to Thursday, July 20 for the respondents to open and close their case.