Ibezim took the oath of office at exactly 11:02 a.m. during the start of plenary.

The oath was administered by the Clerk to the Senate, Mr. Ibrahim El-Ladan.

Recall that the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja had on February 16 affirmed the December 4 verdict of the trial Judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, of the Federal High Court, which disqualified Ibezim as the APC candidate over false statements contained in the educational documents he tendered before the party and INEC.

The suit was instituted against Ibezim by one Asomugha Elebeke, while APC, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Senator Ifeanyi Ararume were the respondents.

In another development, a Federal High Court in Abuja on March 18, 2021, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to declare Chief Ifeanyi Ararume as the winner of the December 5, 2020 bye-election for the Imo North Senatorial District of Imo State.

Justice Taiwo Oladipupo Taiwo held in a judgment that Ararume remained the authentic candidate of the All Progressive Congress in the election as of today and should be declared the winner of that election.

But Justice Emmanuel Agim of the Supreme Court, while delivering a unanimous judgment of the panel on Friday, April 16, 2021, held that the suit and verdicts of the two courts could not stand because it was statute barred (out of time).

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The lawmaker’s decision to leave the opposition party was conveyed in a letter dated November 25th, 2020, and read during the start of plenary by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.

Senator Abbo who described his defection from the PDP to the ruling party as a “movement of God’s people”, attributed same to the mismanagement of the opposition party in Adamawa State by Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.

The letter reads in part: “I write to formally inform you Sir, the Senate and indeed Nigerians of my defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“This is as a result of the mismanagement of the PDP by Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri in Adamawa State which led to the crisis in the party that in turn led to the polarization of the party in the state (PDP and rPDP).”

“Today, I join the APC and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, to build the Nigeria of our dreams.

“The journey may be long, but we are on the right track as I strongly believe that by the end of the tenure of Mr. President, Nigeria will be a better place,” Senator Abbo stated.

He added that, “in the history of Nigeria’s nascent democracy, specifically from 1999 till date, no President has paid attention to the welfare of Nigerian citizens like President Buhari.”

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