Supreme Court Verdict: Jarigbe Tells Senate To Swear Him In

Jarigbe said the Senate President should immediately inaugurate him as a Senator in accordance with the judgement of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court which affirmed him as the authentic candidate of the PDP for the Senatorial bye election.
He also wants the Senate leadership stop his opponent, Stephen Odey, who has been sacked by the Supreme Court from attending plenary as such an act was illegal.

A member of the House of Representatives representing Ogoja/Iyala Federal Constituency of Cross River Hon. Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe on Friday asked the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan to immediately give effect to the judgement of the Supreme Court, which affirmed him as the duly elected Senator for Cross River North.

Jarigbe said the Senate President should immediately inaugurate him as a Senator in accordance with the judgement of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court which affirmed him as the authentic candidate of the PDP for the Senatorial bye election.

He also wants the Senate leadership stop his opponent, Stephen Odey, who has been sacked by the Supreme Court from attending plenary as such an act was illegal.

Jarigbe and Stephen Odey have been locked in a legal battle regarding who is the authentic candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the vacant Cross River north Senatorial district following the death of Senator Rose Okoh.
While the PDP national Secretariat submitted the name of Odey to INEC as its candidate, Jarigbe, who said he won the party primary conducted with the “authentic delegate list and monitored by INEC” claimed he was the real candidate of the party.

The duo had approached the Court with the High Court in Abuja declaring Jarigbe as the real candidate while another High Court in Calabar declared Odey as the candidate.

However, in its judgement delivered on the 25th of February, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal filed by Odey and upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal that Jarigbe was the authentic candidate of the party.

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Jarigbe told Assembly correspondents that some members of staff of the National Assembly deliberately hid the file containing the judgement of the Supreme Court from the Senate President. According to him: “that file did not get to the Senate President until yesterday (Wednesday). I am sure that the Senate President will not disobey the judgement of the court”.