Obono-Obla Lauds Gov. Otu For Slashing CROSIEC's Outrageous Fees 

... Seeks Expungement of Repugnant Provision in CROSIEC Law

By Ebi COLLINS 

Cross River-born legal luminary and towering politician, Okoi Obono-Obla, Esq, has lauded Governor Bassey Otu for his wise decision to slash the CROSIEC fees from its initial N5 million and N1 million for Chairmanship and Councilorship Candidates to N1 million and 200,000, respectively, ahead of the forthcoming local government elections in the state.

Recall that CROSIEC had outrageously pegged the fees for N5 million and N1 million for Chairmanship and Councilorship Candidates respectively, drawing widespread criticism from Cross Riverians and political analysts alike.

"It is highly commendable that Governor Bassey Edet Otu has agreed that candidates for the local government elections should pay N1 million and N200,000 respectively to CROSIEC.

"It is indeed heartwarming that Governor Bassey Edet Otu agreed that under the present excruciating economic hardship, it is outrageous and unacceptable for CROSIEC, to charge Chairmanship candidates whooping N5 million, and N1 million for Councilorship candidates respectively," Obono-Obla averred.

The former presidential aide expressed satisfaction that Governor Otu aligned completely with his point that, in a democracy it amounts to disenfranchisement and denying those who want to participate in the governance of their country or community to impose payment of outrageous and astronomical sums of money on them. 

"The imposition of such outrageous sums of money on candidates is a subterfuge to rig the election before it even started. 

"I commend the deft diplomacy employed by Governor Otu in agreeing that the government would pay the short fall of these fees to CROSIEC. 

Obono-Obla, however, stressed that having such an obnoxious and retrogressive law in the State's statute books makes nonsense of the fact that Cross River is a forwarding looking and progressive state in Nigeria. 

He described the unpopular provision as "a negation of the 'People First' policy thrust or agenda of Governor Bassey Edet Otu's administration hinged on humanitarian ethos and philosophy. 

"The law is simply anti-people, inhumane, and anachronistic out of tune with democratic tenets and should therefore be expunged from the corpus of laws of the state."

The political and public analyst called on the Cross River State House of Assembly to, as a matter of urgency, proceed to amend the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission Law (2002) (as amended by Law No.8 of 2024), deleting the obnoxious provision concerning the outrageous fees on candidates.