Court upholds Stella Oduah’s election, strikes out Okadigbo’s cas

Court upholds Stella Oduah’s election, strikes out

 Okadigbo’s case

Published on May 11, 2016 by pmnews   ·  

Senator Margery Okadigbo

Justice Adeniyi Ademola of Federal High Court, Abuja on Wednesday upheld the election of Mrs. Stella Oduah as the duly elected candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP for the Anambra North Senatorial District in the 2015 general election.

The judge also dismissed the suit filed by Senator Margery Okadigbo challenging the result of December, 2014 Anambra North Senatorial primary election.

Okadigbo had claimed that she scored the highest number of votes at the primary election, and therefore should be declared the candidate of the party for the 2015 general election.

Okadigbo had also asked the court to compel PDP to submit her name to INEC as the authentic candidate of the party.

Stella Oduah

She also prayed the court to restrain INEC from accepting any other name other than her own as the candidate.

But in his judgment Justice Ademola held that the Electoral Act and the constitution are categorical and unambiguous to the effect that a primary election is a primary affair of a political party and should not be enquired into by any court of law.

The Judge said he has studied the case of Senator Okadigbo and found that there is no dispute in the fact the issue in contention is PDP primary election of December 7 2014 which produced Oduah as the candidate of the party for the Anambra Senatorial election.

Justice Ademola further held that since the law is emphatic that no court should enquire into any primary election of a political party, any attempt to go beyond that level would amount to exercise in futility.

He therefore upheld the preliminary objection raised by PDP against the case of Senator Okadigbo and subsequently struck out the case on the grounds that his court has not juridisction to entertain the suit