Cross River by-election: Odey Loses Again As Appeal Court Refuses To Review Its Judgment
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed an application filed by Stephen Odey asking for a review of judgment that sacked him as a senator representing Cross River North Senatorial District.
A five man panel of the appellate court justices led by the President of the Court, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem in a unanimous judgment refused the application on the ground that the court lacks jurisdiction to sit over its own judgment.
The same Appeal Court in Calabar Cross River State had declared Agom Jarigbe of the Peoples Democratic Party as the lawful candidate of PDP for the December 5th, 2020 By-election and not Odey.
Consequently, the Court invalidated the Certificate of Return issued to Odey by the Independent National Electoral Commission and ordered the commission to issue same to Jarigbe.
Not satisfied with the court verdict, Odey through his counsel approached the Appeal Court in Abuja asking the court to review and set aside the judgement made in favour of Jarigbe.
But Dongban-Mensem who read the lead judgment held that the application was an abuse of court process and that Odey was not sincere in his application.
She also ruled that the appellant was only sought for review when the matter was not favourable to him after it had gone through the judicial processes.
The panel further ordered Odey to pay one million naira each to Jarigbe, APC, INEC who are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents respectively.
In a separate judgment on the application filed by the candidate of All Progressives Congress, Joe Agi, the appellate court also dismissed it and ordered the appellant to pay one million naira each in favour of Stephen Odey and Agbom Jarigbe who are the first and second respondents.
