The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it will appeal Thursday’s ruling over Governor Benedict Ayade’s defection to the All Progressives Congress.
Chairman of PDP in Cross River State, Venatius Ikem, gave the assurance on Friday morning in a statement, insisting that Ayade ran away with the party’s mandate.
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The PDP had approached the high court in Abuja over Ayade’s defection but the judgment was delivered in favour of Governor Ayade.
The PDP described it as a provocation inflicted on it by unscrupulous elements who were mistakenly given the mandate of the party in the past.
“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.
“The judgment of yesterday 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.
“We will not rest until justice is gotten and will continue to support our lawyers as they lead us in this battle for the soul of our democracy and good governance of our people.”
Hailing stakeholders, he said the party would not allow Ayade “to 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.”
According to the statement, Ayade has regretted what they described as ill-fated adventure to APC, adding that they “will continue to drive the message home that it was the PDP that was elected to govern Cross River People in 2019 because our people are PDP, body and soul, and not APC.”
He urged PDP supporters not to be dampened by temporary setback of the Thursday’s judgment.
