INDICATIONS emerged at the weekend that the nine federal lawmakers representing Anambra State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the National Assembly, including Senators Andy Uba and Stella Oduah may return to the Supreme Court this week for clarification regarding their status with respect to its judgment on the leadership crisis rocking the party in the state.
Interestingly, Chief Chris Ubah, John Emeka, Annie Okonkwo and others on the list of Ejike Oguebego-led national executive of the party, who got judgment of the Supreme Court, have approached the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue them Certificates of Return as elected senators and House of Representatives members for Anambra State.
Already, Uba and Oduah have written to INEC insisting that the judgment did not affect their seats in the National Assembly.
Sources close to one of them told Daily Sun that the motion seeking clarification of the judgment became necessary in view of the insinuations that the lawmakers may have lost their seats by the judgment of the apex court.
In a letter addressed to the Chairman of INEC by their lawyer, Chief Arthur Okafor (SAN), the politicians insisted that the Supreme Court judgment delivered last Friday has not in any way rendered their seats vacant in both chambers of the National Assembly.
The January 29 letter stated that the lawmakers urged the INEC chairman to “resist the machinations of those who are ill-motivated and bent on causing confusion in the system. If you find that the national executive of PDP, which, in the case, nominated our clients, then in the absence of a court order, there will be no compulsion or justification on your part to interfere with the mandate vested in our clients by the PDP and the electorate.”
They insisted that the primary election which produced them as candidates for the 2015 general elections was conducted by the national secretariat of the PDP as required by law and not the Anambra chapter of the PDP as being insinuated.
In a related development, House of Representatives member representing Anambra East and West Federal Constituency and former state chairman of the PDP, Tony Nwoye, has said he foresees further crisis in the party in the state following the Supreme Court judgment.
Nwoye reiterated that the judgment of the court was purely on who was the authentic state chairman and had nothing to do with their positions as lawmakers.
The lawmaker said this when he addressed members of his constituency whom he invited to his Nsugbe country home to say thank you for their support for him. Nwoye noted that the Supreme Court had earlier decided the issue of the PDP tickets when it held last year in a matter brought by Charles Odedo that Oguebego had no business in the PDP list.
Yesterday, in Abuja, Chief Chris Uba, Andy’s brother said he would, today, storm INEC to demand for his certificate of return as winner of the election. Uba warned his brother and Oduah, as well as others to stop parading themselves as senators.
He insisted that the judgment of the Supreme Court last Friday which affirmed an earlier High Court verdict recognising the Oguebego executive as the state’s authentic leadership, meant that he and the people in his camp have become members of the National Assembly.
He advised the affected ‘former’ senators and House Representatives members to accept their fate and honourably step down, adding that he will lead other members of the party who emerged as candidates under the Oguebego-monitored primaries to the office of INEC today to demand for their Certificates of Return.
Andy Uba and Oduah had faulted the assumptions that the Supreme Court judgment effectively removed them from office, arguing that they were not party in the suit, which basically had to deal with issues of leadership crisis in Anambra PDP.
Chris, who described himself as “senator representing Anambra South” told newsmen in Abuja yesterday that he was “shocked that those who should be conversant with the laws of the land could be deceiving the public regarding their true status after the Supreme Court failed to recognise the dubious way through which they got to the Senate…”
Daily Sun
