Stella Oduah On
Friday in Abuja, described as “a misinterpretation”, media reports which quoted
a Supreme Court judgment to have sacked her and other federal lawmakers from
Anambra. Reports in the media said that the apex court had ordered the
replacement of Oduah and other federal lawmakers from the state saying that
their nomination to contest in the 2015 election was wrong.
In a statement issued by Cynthia Ferdinand, Press Secretary to the Senator, Oduah said that the report in the media was misleading as the apex court did not order the withdrawal of her certificate of return. She said that the judgement of the Supreme Court said that it was only the National Executive Council of a political party that had the legal right to sponsor candidates in an election. 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.
In a statement issued by Cynthia Ferdinand, Press Secretary to the Senator, Oduah said that the report in the media was misleading as the apex court did not order the withdrawal of her certificate of return. She said that the judgement of the Supreme Court said that it was only the National Executive Council of a political party that had the legal right to sponsor candidates in an election. 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.
“It is 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 authorise 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 it is only the National Executive
of the party that has the vires to sponsor candidates,” she said.Meanwhile, the
solicitors to the nine lawmakers allegedly sacked, have written to the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
not to also fall into the folly of misunderstanding the judgment.
The letter signed
by the lawmakers urged the commission not to allow itself to be misled by its
legal department just as it was initially misled to accepting the list
presented by the state chapter of the party. The lawmakers stressed that
separate rulings of the Supreme Court including that of Jan. 29, upheld that
only the list submitted by the National Executive Committee was valid. “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. The letter also drew the
attention of INEC to pages 4647 and
48 of the judgment of the Supreme Court to further buttress the point that the
couurt did not sack their clients. The solicitors stated further that the apex
court did not authorise the Commission to substitute the lawmakers’ names with
the individuals whose names were on the list improperly allowed by the
Commission.
NAN reports
that the media was awash with reports that the Supreme Court had sacked the
nine remaining lawmakers from. Please like and share!