Posted by Both the Obong of Calabar palace in Calabar South and Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi’s private mansion in Adiabo town have been continuously celebrating.
After years of legal wrangling, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi-Otu V, the deposed monarch, has been given the opportunity to reclaim the throne.
The Etuboms’ Traditional Council has confirmed that Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu still remains the candidate it would choose as king. The Supreme Court, which ousted the Obong today, also ordered a fresh election in which he is eligible for the throne.
The ruling was drafted by Justice Amina Ahgid and read by Justice Akomoye Agim of the supreme court. It was the culmination of 15 years of legal disputes.
It upheld the Calabar Appeal Court’s earlier decision. The Obong will be taken out for a new selection process for the fourth time in total.
Etubom Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu and others were sued for abandoning the Western Calabar screening procedure in Suit No. HC/102/2008, which was filed by lead counsel Joe Agi, SAN, on behalf of the former minister of finance Anthony Ani and others in their capacities as members of the Etuboms’ Traditional Council.
Prior to this, on January 30, 2012, Justice Obojor A. Ogar of the High Court of Cross River State had dismissed Abasi Otu as the Obong of Calabar in favor of Etubom Anthony Ani.
The High Court’s ruling was, however, contested by the Obong and others in Calabar’s Appeal Court. The first respondent (Etubom Ani), who admittedly was not capped/inducted into the Etuboms’ Council of the Palace of the Obong by the Obong at the time of the selection process of the Obong of Calabar, was not traditionally qualified and eligible to vote and be voted for as the Obong of Calabar under Exhibit 1/20, according to the judgment delivered on June 4, 2013, by Justice Garba Lawal, who is now a justice of the Supreme Court.
The first appellant (Abasi Otu), according to his conclusion, “was customarily qualified and eligible to vote and be voted for as the Obong of Calabar per Exhibit 1/20 at the time of the selection procedure.”
Therefore, the Appeal Court had invalidated the selection procedure that resulted in the nomination of Etubom Ani as a candidate, as well as the March 31 proclamation of Etubom Abasi Otu as Obong by the Etuboms’ Conclave of the Palace of the Obong of Calabar, whose authority to do so is granted by Article 5(a)(ii)(iv) of Exhibit 1/20, and ordered the “conduction [