Dr. Stephen Odey, will go into Nigerian political history books as the shortest serving Senator of the Federal Republic
This is because, Odey who was on Wednesday December 18, 2020, sworn-in by President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, as Senator representing Cross River North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, will quit the red chambers following a judgement of the Court of Appeal delivered last Friday.
INEC had on Sunday, December 6, declared Dr Stephen Odey as the winner of Saturday, December 5 bye-election held at Ogoja for the northern senatorial zone, having polled 129,207 votes to defeat the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Joe Agi, SAN, who scored 19,165 votes.
But in a swift action, Hon. Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, the member representing Ogoja/Yala Federal Constituency, in the House of Representatives, who also contested the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, ticket with Dr. Odey, had gone to court, insisting that he was the authentic candidate of the PDP in the December, 5th election.
Hon. Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, had won the case at the High Court. But armed with a Certificate of Return, Odey had rushed to the Senate to be sworn in, after appealing the judgement. On Tuesday, December 16th, Senate President Ahmed Lawan had put Odey’s swearing in on hold following the judgement of the Federal High Court, but pressure from the PDP, particularly the Cross River State leadership, made him succumb on Wednesday.
However, all that is changed now as INEC has issued a fresh Certificate of Return to Hon. Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe as the winner and duly elected candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the last Cross River North Senatorial bye-election following the Court of Appeal declaration.
The appellate court had affirmed the judgment of an FCT High Court which had earlier declared Hon. Jarigbe as duly elected PDP candidate for the December 5 Cross River North Senatorial election.
The certificate of return was handed over to Jarigbe by an INEC National Commissioner, Mr Festus Okoye at a brief ceremony in Abuja.
