ONGOING: Onor, Jarigbe At Court Of Appeal Abuja Over Endless #CRNorthDecides Litigations

By CrossRiverWatch Admin

The Senator representing central senatorial district in the national assembly, Sandy Onor and senator elect for the northern district, Jarigbe Agom have arrived the premises of the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal in preparation for a ruling on a motion filed by Joe Agi SAN to reverse a judgment of the Court.

A three man panel of the Court sitting in Calabar, the Cross River State capital had dismissed the petitions filed before it by Mr. Agi and Dr. Stephen Odey arising from the Elections Petition Tribunal ruling which held that the People’s Democratic Party had won the December 5, 2020 senatorial by-election in northern Cross River.

The panel upheld the appeal of Mr. Jarigbe and declared him the validly elected senator of the district.

But, dissatisfied with this, Mr. Agi and Mr. Odey are said to have filed a motion seeking to set aside the ruling of the Court of Appeal which is usually the final arbiter on issues arising from national and state assemblies elections petition tribunals.

Court documents show that Mr. Agi who brought his motion pursuant to Section 6(6), 246(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as altered) as well as Order 6 Rule 12 and Order 19 Rule 4 of the Court of Appeal Rules 2016 and under the inherent jurisdiction of the Court, is seeking the Court to “amend, correct and or set aside the order made in her judgment of July 30, which directed that Jarigbe be re-issued the Certificate of Return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”

Summarily, he argued that the judgment of July 30 was in error and should be reviewed and corrected to return him as the winner, having scored the highest lawful vote in the by-election having claimed that the PDP had no lawful candidate.

For Odey, the July 30 judgment was in error because Mr. Jarigbe did not file a cross petition and so cannot be entitled to any relief of the Court warranting his being declared a winner of the election.

He is asking the Court to set aside that judgment since he polled the highest votes in the election as declared by INEC and was duly sponsored by his party, PDP.

Photographs obtained by CrossRiverWatch shows that the founder of The Akpanke foundation, Mr. Peter Akpanke among others were at the court.

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday in Abuja presented for the second time, a Certificate of Return to federal lawmaker, Jarigbe Agom as the duly elected Senator representing Cross River North in the Nigerian Senate.

“Hon. National Commissioner, Mrs. May Agbamuche-Mbu (left) today presented a Certificate of Return to the Senator representing the Cross River North Senatorial District, Mr Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, at the Commission’s Headquarters in Abuja,” the electoral umpire posted on its verified Facebook page on Wednesday.

This followed the order of the Court of Appeal to the electoral umpire. This means that three Certificates of Return have been issued over the by-elections which was necessitated by the demise of Senator Rose Oko.

While Mr. Odey was issued a Certificate of Return shortly after the elections were concluded, Mr. Jarigbe was issued another Certificate of Return earlier this year following the order of the FCT High Court.

After receiving the certificate, Mr. Jarigbe is said to have paid a visit to his political mentor, Liyel Imoke, the immediate past Governor of Cross River; Emmanuel Ibeshi, a former national publicity secretary of the People’s Democratic Party and Senator Onor.

A video obtained by CrossRiverWatch shows Mr. Imoke reading the contents of the Certificate of Return in a manner that suggested sarcasm and a message to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State after unverified claims that Mr. Odey had planned his defection to the APC after winning at the Tribunal.