After years of legal wrangling, the Supreme Court deposed Édidem Ekpo Okon Abasi-Otu V as Obong of Calabar on Friday.
The court confirmed the decision of the Appeal Court, Calabar, and ordered a new election in the ruling prepared by Justice Amina Augie and read by Justice Akomaye Agim.
The ousted Obong, who will be stepping down for the fourth time for a selection process, is still eligible to run for office.
That Etubom Anthony Ani and others, in a lawsuit brought by his lead attorney, Mr. Joe Agi(SAN), sued Etubom Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu and others in their roles as members of the Etuborns’ Traditional Council for abandoning the screening procedure of the Western Calabar under the then Chairman, Etubom Abasi-Otu, now the Obong of Calabar, that had screened and selected Etubom Ani as their sole candidate.
Etubom Abasi Otu was declared the Obong-elect by the Etuboms’ Conclave before Etubom Ani filed the lawsuit, not after he had been formally installed as the Obong of Calabar.
On January 30, 2012, Justice Obojor A. Ogar of the High Court of Cross River state dismissed Abasi Otu as the Obong of Calabar in favor of Etubom Anthony Ani and overturned the decision of the Appeal Court that had sided with the ousted Obong.
But when the Obong and others appealed the High Court ruling to the Appeal Court in Calabar, the court once more dismissed them and ordered a new election.
On June 4, 2013, Justice Garba Lawal, the Lead Judge at the time and currently a Justice of the Supreme Court, issued the following ruling:
“That the 1st appellant, Abasi Otu, was traditionally qualified and eligible to vote and be voted for as the Obong of Calabar under Exhibit 1/20 at the time of the selection process.”
Hence, the Appeal Court set aside the selection process that produced Etubom Ani as candidate and also set aside the March 31 proclamation of Etubom Abasi Otu as Obong, ordered by the Etuboms’ Conclave of the Palace of the Obong of Calabar, whose mandate it is under Article 5(a) (ii) (iv) of Exhibit 1/20, to do so.
The court ordered it “to conduct another process of selecting a new Obong of Calabar, in accordance with the provisions of Exhibit 1/20 and in strict compliance with the rules of natural justice.”
The summary of the judgment made available to newsmen in Calabar immediately after it was delivered on January 13, 2023, states that fresh election will be held in accordance with the 2002 constitution of the Palace, in line with equity and actual justice.
At private residence of the Obong at Adiabo, some of the Etuboms who gathered there in for an emergency meeting sang a song that “till tomorrow Edidem Ekpo Okon will still win them till tomorrow”.
This is the first time in the history of the throne that the apex court will dethrone an Obong.
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