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JUST IN: Tribunal confirms Senator Odey’s election

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Senator Odey APC PDP



Senator Stephen Odey of the Peoples Democratic Party was affirmed as the rightful winner of the December 5, 2020 By-Election held in Cross River North Senatorial District.

An Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Calabar, Cross River State capital, presided over by Justice Yusuf Ubale Muhammad passed the judgment on Friday following a four-hour-long consideration, according to Nation.

The three-man tribunal dismissed the petition N0: EPT/CR/SEN/03/2020 by the opposition party, All Progressive Congress, and Joe Agi SAN against Odey, Jerigbe Agom Jerigbe, Peoples’ Democratic Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission.

APC’s petition was dismissed by the Tribunal for lacking merits, in line with the preliminary objections earlier raised by the Respondents, according to the report.
The judgment further noted that the petitioner admitted during cross-examination by saying, “let it be on records that I am not contesting the votes, all I am saying is that the PDP had no candidate in the election and so the votes scored are wasted votes.”

The first respondent, Sen. Odey scored 129,307 votes and the Petitioner scored 18,165votes in the election. And as for the petition arguing that the two candidates for the PDP were not qualified to stand election as on the election day of December 5, 2020, the Tribunal judgment said thus;

“The question to ask is in view of the admission of the petitioner that he is not a member of the PDP and he left since 2017, does he have the locus standi to challenge the primaries of the PDP? The definite answer is no.”

“The position of the law is that it is only an aspirant who contested a primary election that can approach the court under the provision of the section 87.9 of the electoral Act. It, therefore, shows that the petitioner in this petition has no locus standi to challenge the return of the first respondent.

“As for the evidence before the tribunal, the first petitioner alleged that the 3rd respondent sponsored two candidates for the senatorial by-election for CRS north which led to the issuance of two certificates of return; 1st to Odey on the 6th of Dec, 2020 and another to the 18th of Feb. 2021.”

The tribunal submitted that the second respondent Hon. Jerigbe Agom was not a candidate in the election and that the Certificate of Return issued to him by the Independent National Electoral Commission was done wrongfully and should be discountenanced.

“It is not possible for the INEC to hear someone who has not submitted form CF001 and CF 002 as the nomination process is complete only when the Commission receives the necessary documents – see the decision in PDM Vs INEC 2020. On the whole, we hold that there is no evidence before us to destroy the return of the first respondent as the duly elected senator represented Cross River North. We have studied exhibits A22, the Judgment of the Court of Appeal and we could not find where a certificate of Return issued to the first respondent is nullified and as such the issuance of the 2nd certificate of return to the 2nd respondent by INEC is wrongful and hereby discountenanced.”

Counsel for the petitioner, Olademeji Ekemgbe reacted to the judgment by hinting that they have seen areas in the judgment that needs to be tested in the appeal court and his client will be advised accordingly after studying the judgment.

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