OBANDE FESTUS OGBUINYA, JCA (DELIVERING THE LEADING JUDGMENT): This appeal is an offspring of the decision of the National and State Houses of Assembly Election Tribunal of Cross River State, sitting in Calabar (hereinafter addressed as “the tribunal”), coram judice: Vincent N. Agbata, J. (Chairman), Ishaku I. Kunda, J. (Member) and Abubakar S. Bello, J. (Member), in Petition No. EPT/CAL/SHA/13/2019, delivered on 4th September, 2019. Before the tribunal, the appellants and the respondents were the petitioners and the respondents respectively.
The facts of the petition, which transformed into the appeal, are amenable to brevity and simplicity. The second respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC, for short), is a body constitutionally allocated the herculean responsibility to organise general election in Nigeria. In discharge of the onerous duty, it conducted an election, on 9th March, 2019, for a member to represent Yakurr II State Constituency in the House of As…