Sen. 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.
“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
butress 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 Anambra state.