Big Setback For Ayade As Ally Loses Senate Seat

The political outlook for Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State was on Friday being dimmed after he lost a key battle for ascendancy in Cross River North after a bitter political foe was returned by the courts as the senator for a seat once occupied by him.

 GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that Governor Ayade had recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to the All Progressives Congress, APC claiming that it was the right thing to do to bring the state into the mainstream of the APC led Federal Government.

However, the governor’s political momentum went off balance after the Court of Appeal in Calabar on Friday declared Rep. Jerigbe Agom-Jerigbe as the duly elected Senator for Cross River North senatorial district.

Governor Ayade had fought a futile battle to stop Agom-Jerigbe taking the ticket of the PDP. He had instead pushed his political ally and former Senate aide, Steve Odey who contended for the seat and was given the ticket by a lower court upon which order, he Odey was sworn in.

The tussle over the Cross River North seat was believed to be among the issues that forced Ayade out of the PDP, the party through which he represented the Senatorial district in the Senate from 2011 to 2015 and the party he won his two elections as governor.

The Court in the declarative judgment affirmed that Agom-Jarigbe was the lawful candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Dec. 5, 2020 by-election for the seat.

The three-man Appeal Tribunal headed by Justice Chioma Nwosu also invalidated the certificate of return earlier issued to Sen. Steven Odey by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and directed that it be withdrawn.

The court, however, ordered INEC to issue Agom-Jarigbe a fresh Certificate of Return and that he should be sworn in immediately.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Cross River North Senate seat became vacant when Sen. Rose Oko died in March 2020. Senator Rose Oko had succeeded Ayade who occupied the seat between 2011 and 2015.

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