…Dismisses Jarigbe’s case
The Federal High Court sitting in Calabar, Thursday, declared Dr. Stephen Odey as the rightful candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Cross River North Senatorial bye-election scheduled for Saturday December 5, 2020.
The presiding judge, Justice S.A. Amobeda, who gave the judgment in a suit filed by Dr. Stephen Odey against the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) and Hon Jarigbe Agom, in suit No FHC/CA/CS/87/20 restrained INEC and any other party in the case from doing anything that will adversely affect the candidature of Dr. Stephen Odey.
Meanwhile, the court also dismissed the case of Rt Hon Jarigbe Agom, Member representing Ogoja/Yala Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives with FHC/CA/CS/105/2020 for want of jurisdiction, lack of merit and evidence, saying that, “The report of the minority team declaring Hon Jarigbe as winner is hereby rejected on ground that it does not meet the required criteria stipulated by the guidelines of Party Primaries election.”
The court ruled in the two cases in favour of Dr Stephen Odey as the duly elected candidate of the PDP.
The Court laid down the long litigation to rest by upholding the name of Dr. Stephen Odey as the authentic candidate of the PDP in the December 5, 2020 elections with a mandate for the 1st respondent, INEC to recognize and publish the name of Stephen Odey as the authentic candidate of the PDP.
This means all the pending election matters over who is the rightful candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Cross Rive North supplementary elections have been laid to rest.
Similarly, the Court also set aside the Exparte Order of the Port Harcourt Federal High Court granted on 11/9/2020. With this judgment the Court puts to an end the question of who is the rightful candidate of the PDP in the Saturday December 5, 2020 elections.
It would be recalled that the PDP held its Senatorial bye-election primaries on September 5, where Dr Stephen Odey was declared winner by polling 450 votes to defeat his closest rival, Rt Hon Jarigbe Agom who scored 90 votes.
However, Hon Agom challenged the victory of Dr Odey and got an exparte order stopping INEC from publishing Dr Odey’s as the PDP candidate. But after the expiration of the order, Dr Odey on his part obtained an exparte order compelling INEC to publish his name as the party’s candidate pending the determination of the suit.
The both cases were determined on Thursday, December 3, and Dr Odey’s primary victory was upheld as candidate of the PDP.
However, rumours filtered in same day that an Abuja High Court declared Hon Jarigbe as winner of the primaries and order INEC to accept him as candidate of the PDP. Checks revealed that, the National Legal Adviser of the party are not aware of such case as there were never served with court processes of the case.
The party has declined the so called judgment as illegal and inconsequential, saying that Hon Jarigbe was never the candidate of the party.
