I was Not Sacked By Supreme Court –Odua

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.