Lady Margery Chuba-Okadigbo, wife of former Senate President, the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, was yesterday declared as the authentic candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and winner of the Anambra North Senatorial district in the April 16 National Assembly election.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja declared Lady Okadigbo as the senator and ordered her inauguration into the Senate to occupy the Anambra North senatorial seat that had been vacant in the past six months due to various legal actions over the soul of the said seat.
A three-man panel of the appellate court, in its judgment delivered by Justice M.U. Mukhtar, unanimously held that Lady Margery Chuba-Okadigbo having polled the highest number of votes in the primary election conducted in the state remains the candidate and winner of the Anambra North senatorial seat in the National Assembly.
The appellate court agreed with all documents including the primary election result tendered by PDP, INEC and Lady Okadigbo which all indicated that she emerged victorious at the primary election conducted by the Senator Joseph Waku Committee on behalf of PDP National Working Committee.
The court, while setting aside the lower court’s judgment which favoured Senator Igbeke, said that it was wrong of the Federal High Court to have based its decision solely on the documents submitted to it by Igbeke and closed its eyes to other documents of the other parties in the case especially the PDP, INEC and Lady Okadigbo.
Specifically, the court, after evaluating all documents relating to the case, agreed that Lady Chuba-Okadigbo polled 168 votes, Senator Igbeke 23 votes and Prince John Emeka 15 votes and therefore had no hesitation in declaring Lady Chuba-Okadigbo as the properly nominated candidate of PDP as well as the winner of the last April Election.