The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, February 24, declared that Stella Oduah, Andy Ubah and the other lawmakers under the Peoples Democratic Party in Anambra state, are to remain in their duly elected seats.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had earlier requested the Supreme Court to clarify its ruling that returned Ejike Oguebego as the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party on Friday, January 29 upon insinuations that since Oduah, Uba and the rest did not belong to Oguebego’s faction of the party, their elections could not remain valid.
While ruling of the matter, the Supreme Court said it does not have jurisdiction as “the court shall not review any judgement given by it, as stated in the court rules. The judgement of this Court is final as reflected in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. On the whole I hold the view that this court has no jurisdiction to entertain this motion from INEC, this matter is hereby stuck out.”
The Apex court declared that it had stated repeatedly that only the National Executive of a party could send a list of contesting candidates to INEC and since the candidates in question were forwarded by the National executives and not the caretaker committee, then there was no question of the validity of their candidacy.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court pointed out to INEC that the judgement which reinstated Oguebego was not its ruling, stating that it only overturned the judgement of the Appeal Court against the ruling of the High Court.
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