The senator representing Anambra North senatorial district, Stella Oduah, has been dragged before a Federal High Court in Abuja over alleged perjury committed in order to be nominated for the 2023 senatorial election.
Oduah was sued alongside the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the 2nd and 3rd defendants in the suit, respectfully.
A chieftain of the party and senatorial aspirant, Chief John Emeka, instituted the suit, which was marked FHC/ABJ/CS/841/2022, through his counsel, Mbanefo Ikwegbue.
In the suit, the court was asked to issue an order restraining Oduah from presenting herself forward as the senatorial candidate of the PDP in the next year’s elections.
The plaintiff also prayed the court to stop the PDP from submitting Senator Oduah’s name as its candidate for the Anambra North senatorial election.
A similar order was sought against INEC to prohibit it from accepting Oduah from the PDP as its candidate in the next year’s elections.
The plaintiff predicated his suit on the ground that on October 23, 2014, Mrs. Oduah allegedly committed perjury by making an affidavit on oath that she lost the original copy of her National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate when she actually possessed none.
He further claimed that the senator committed another perjury in the INEC form CF001 in 2015 and 2019, where she allegedly used false information to obtain the nomination for the 2015 and 2019 senatorial elections.
The PDP chieftain relied on a letter of May 24, 2022, by the Director-General of the NYSC to the effect that Mrs. Oduah did not complete the mandatory one-year service and was not issued with a discharge certificate or a letter of exemption.
Maintaining the senator breached sections 2 and 12 of the NYSC Act, the plaintiff prayed for an order nullifying the nomination of Mrs. Oduah as the PDP candidate for the 2023 senatorial election for Anambra North.
The plaintiff asked the court to compel the PDP and INEC to submit his name as the candidate for the senatorial election having come second in the primary election that produced Mrs. Oduah as the candidate.
Although the plaintiff sought to move an ex-parte application for an injunction to restrain publishing the name of Oduah, Justice Inyang Ekwo, however, ordered the plaintiff to put all parties in the suit on notice.
Justice Ekwo subsequently fixed June 23 for a definite hearing of the suit.
(PUNCH)
