My stand on Court’s verdict, by Joy Emodi

By Chioma Gabriel & Vincent Ujumadu

AWKA—SENATOR Joy Emodi, who until last week, represented Anambra North in the Senate, has cleared the air on the report in the media, that she lost at the lower tribunal before the matter got to the Court of Appeal, where she lost.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu had in its judgment, declared Mr. Alphonsus Igbeke,  who contested the 2007 senatorial election on the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, the winner of the election and ordered that he should be sworn in as the Senator representing Anambra North.

Speaking through her Legislative Assistant, Mr. Chinedu Onyeizugbe, she said that the truth of the matter was that she won at the lower tribunal, while Mr Igbeke,  who challenged her at the lower tribunal in Awka, appealed against the judgment at the Court of Appeal.

According to her, the judgment at the lower tribunal was unanimous and wonders why some sections of the media reported that the Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of the lower tribunal, adding that the judgment of the lower tribunal in Awka, was available for everybody to see.

Though she did not apportion blame to anybody following the decision of the Court of Appeal, which upturned her election, she recalled that even the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,  rejected the results Igbeke tendered at the lower tribunal.

She recalled that Igbeke did the same thing to Chief Ralph Okeke in the House of Representatives, adding that it was a game he knows how to play.