Oduah's sack rumours mere misinterpretation

– Sen. Stella Oduah said that her sack rumors were “mere interpretations” of the Supreme Court’s rulings.

– A solicitor to the nine lawmakers that were allegedly sacked have written to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

– The Supreme Court did not order the withdrawal of the Certificates of Return issued by the Commission

Stella Oduah

The senator representing Anambra North, Stella Oduah (PDP) on Friday, January 29 said that her sack rumors were “mere interpretations” of the Supreme Court’s rulings.

In a statement by Cynthia Ferdinand, Press Secretary to the Senator, Oduah therefore stressed that she and all the other lawmakers from Anambra state have not been sacked by the Supreme Court contrary to media reports.

The statement read: “Adverse to the rumours that the Lawmaker Representing the good people of Anambra North Senator Stella Oduah of the Peoples Democratic Party has been sacked by the Supreme Court .

“It is however pertinent to note that this is a mere misinterpretation of the Supreme Court rulings and‎ should be disregarded in all entirety‎.

“The Supreme Court did not order the withdrawal of the Certificates of Return issued by the Commission.It did not hold that the faction of the PDP had the right to sponsor candidates for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“It did not equally authorize the Commission to substitute our clients with the individuals whose names were on the list improperly allowed by the Commission. Series of judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria states that that it is only the National Executive of the party that has the vires to sponsor candidates,” she said.

However, the solicitor to the nine lawmakers that were allegedly sacked have written to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to be misled by the court ruling.

It read in parts: “This correspondence is aimed at setting the record straight so that your good self will not again be misled by your legal department into unjustifiably occasioning an unnecessary confusion in the process.

“May I draw your attention to the most pertinent segment of the Judgment for the purpose of the status of the legislators sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at pages 46, 47 and 48 of the Judgment where their lordships of the Supreme Court held as follows:-

“The Court below, however, veered from the course set by the trial court and took the matter to another level which clearly failed to take into consideration the main issue before the trial court.

“It is established beyond peradventure that it is the National Executive Committee of the appellant which has the power to conduct a valid primary for the nomination or selection of candidates for a general election.

“Accordingly, I hold that there was no feature in the case submitted by the Appellants that warranted the court below to apply the cases of OKADIGBO v. EMEKA & Ors (Supra) and EMENIKE v. PDP (supra).

“The two authorities decided on which organ of a Political Party has power to conduct primaries. This is not the issue in this case. Thus, this issue is yet again resolved in favour of the Appellants.” It read.

Naijaplaza.com recalls that in December 2014, the Federal High Court had ruled that the Ejike Oguebego-led executive was the only constitutionally recognized leadership of the party in Anambra state that could conduct the PDP primaries.

Despite that ruling, the parallel state executive of the PDP led by Chief Chukwudi Okasa went ahead to conduct parallel primaries.

However, by this judgment, the apex court reaffirmed the verdict of the Federal High Court declaring that the Oguebego-led executive had the sole right to conduct the primaries in that state.