Two conflicting court rulings in favour of two different contenders laying claims to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket are threatening the conduct of the Cross River North senatorial by-election scheduled for Saturday, December 5, 2020, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
While the Federal High Court in Calabar on Thursday, in a suit with number FHC/CA/CS/87/2020, presided over by Justice Simon A. Amobeda, affirmed Dr. Stephen Odey as PDP candidate for the election, another ruling from the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, in suit No. CV/77/2020, and presided over by Justice Binta Mohammed, same Thursday, declared Hon. Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe was the duly elected candidate of the party.
Justice Amodeba had said he was relying on “relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), provisions of the Electoral Act 2020 and Articles of the People’s Democratic Party Guidelines for conduct of its primaries,” for his decision.
He, therefore, ordered INEC to publish the name of Dr. Odey as the duly nominated candidate of the PDP, saying that INEC “is compelled and bound by law to publish the name of the 1st defendant (Dr Stephen Odey), who was validly nominated by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and whose name was submitted by the PDP to INEC list of nominated candidates to contest the Cross River North Senatorial District bye election now scheduled to hold on the 5th day of December 2020.”
INEC had complied with the ruling and accordingly included Dr. Odey’s name as the candidate for the election in its list but stated clearly that Odey’s inclusion was as a result of a court order.
Blueprint reports that no sooner had this been done than another ruling emerged, late Thursday, from an Abuja High Court directing INEC, which was sued as the second defendant, to include and publish the name of Hon. Jarigbe on the list of candidates for the bye- election.
