An Abuja High Court sitting at Bwari has ordered Senator Stella Oduah who is representing Anambra North Senatorial District, to within five days, adduce reasons why her seat should not be declared vacant following her defection from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.

The court, in the order that was made by Justice Othman Musa, equally directed the service of all the legal processes on Clerk of the Senate, even as it fixed August 29 to commence hearing on the matter.

The order followed a suit marked FCT/HC/BW/CV/118/2018, which was lodged before the high court by a chieftain of the PDP in Anambra State, Mr. Nwaokike Godwin.

The plaintiff had through his lawyer, Mr. Jideobi Johnmary, prayed the court to determine, “Whether upon an intimate reading and complete understanding of section 68(1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, and especially in view of the decision of the Nigerian Supreme Court in Abegundu v. Ondo State House of Assembly, (2015) 8 NWLR. Part 1461 Page 314, the Defendant who defected to the All Progressives Grand Alliance from the People’s Democratic Party [on which platform she was elected a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and where there was no faction as at time of her defection] ought not to have her seat in the Senate declared vacant by this Honourable Court”.

Upon determination of the sole question, the plaintiff urged the court to declare Oduah’s seat vacant on the premise that there was no faction in the PDP as at the time of her defection to APGA.He told the court that Senator Oduah had on June 6, announced that she was no longer a member of the PDP, the political party on whose platform she was elected into the Senate.

• Excerpted from a Vanguard report