C’River North Senate Seat: It’s Jarigbe 3, Ayade 0- PDP
2 min readA member of the PDP Caretaker Committee in Cross River State, Mr. KJ Agba has described Friday’s Appeal Court Victory of Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe over Dr. Steve Odey as a final round defeat of the governor, Prof. Ben Ayade.
Agba said in a telephone interview minutes after the judgement that with the development, Jarigbe had scored Ayade 3-0, home and away. He was referring to the three wins recorded at the high court, appeal court and the Supreme Court by Jarigbe against Odey who was fielded by Ayade.
Jarigbe and Odey have been in court in the last 10 months, dragging the Cross River North Senatorial seat which became vacant after the death of Senator Rose Oko.
Some month ago, Jarigbe was issued a certificate of return by INEC, after he was declared winner of the election by the Apex Court.
But the senate president refused to swear him in on the grounds that Odey had earlier been issued a similar certificate and that it was never withdrawn.
On Friday, the court of appeal, in its judgement said INEC was wrong to have issued a certificate to Odey as he was not validly nominated by the PDP and never won the election, and ordered that the certificate should be withdrawn.
The court presided over by Justice Ndukwe Anyanwu also ordered that Jarigbe was validly nominated by the PDP and as winner of the senate election should therefore be sworn-in.
Jarigbe’s lawyer, Mba Ukweni, SAN, who spoke on the judgement said the end had come on the matter. He said Jarigbe would be sworn-in immediately the senate resumed from the current recess.
Sounding rather sarcastic, Ukweni said even after socketing to the centre, Ayade had been disgraced right in front of his home.
Jarigbe could not be reached as at press time when TNN called for his comments.