1 week after being sworn-in, Stephen Odey removed from Senate as INEC issues certificate of return to Jarigbe

Barely a week after the President of the 9th Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan swore in  Dr. Stephen Odey as the member representing Cross River North Senatorial District in the Red Chamber, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has issued a  certificate of return to Hon. Jarigbe Agom as the authentic winner of the September PDP primary election.

Hon. Jarigbe Agom and Dr. Stephen Odey have since after the PDP primary which held at Ogoja in September, laid claim to the party’s ticket, with Jarigbe dragging the party to court, claiming the State Governor, Senator Ben Ayade was foisting a stooge on the party.

Jarigbe had approached the vacation court in Port Harcourt to challenge the primaries which he claimed was in total breach of the directives of the party guidelines and that he had been declared winner of the primaries only for the party to do a U-turn in Abuja.

On the eve of the elections, two federal high courts gave contradictory judgements on who the real candidate of the party is; While Justice Simon Amobeda of the Federal High Court  sitting in Calabar ruled in favour of Dr. Stephen Odey, the Federal High Court in Abuja ruled in favour of Hon. Jarigbe Agom.

Efforts to halt the inauguration of Dr. Odey by Jarigbe failed and he was sworn in on the 15th of December, 2020 as the senator representing Cross River Senatorial District.

But barely 24 hours after the inauguration, the Court of Appeal in Abuja presided by Justice Binta declared Rt. Hon. Jarigbe Agom as the winner of the PDP primaries and directed INEC to issue a certificate of return to Rt. Hon. Jarigbe Agom.