The Chairman of the Cross River State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Stephen Odey has won in the senatorial bye-election held over the weekend.
Odey is a candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the polls.
The Collation Officer for the senatorial by-election in Cross River North, Professor Ameh Akoh of Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ikwo, Ebonyi State, said Odey scored 129,207 votes to defeat eight other contestants.
Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Mr Joe Agi scored 19,165 votes to place second while African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr Gregory Agam came third with 388 votes among others.
“The PDP candidate having scored the highest number of votes cast is hereby declared the winner in line with electoral guidelines,” Akoh stated
With the victory, Mr Odey is expected to proceed to the Nigerian Senate and would therefore be replaced at the Cross River SUBEB by whoever the state government designates for that.
More about Stephen Odey
Odey has an experience spanning the academia, public administration, the legal profession, politics, and community leadership.
Prior to becoming a two-term Cross River SUBEB chairman from 2015, he was a lecturer at the Department of Sociology, University of Calabar.
In 2009, he joined the services of the university as Lecturer II, and was promoted to Lecturer I in 2015 and in 2019 he was also promoted Senior Lecturer.
In 2017, he served briefly as the Acting Managing Director of Cross River State Water Board Limited while still heading SUBEB.
Earlier in his career, he served with the Cross River State Ministry of Education as teacher between 1989 and 1998. He rose to the position of Acting Principal in 1999.
Dr Odey resigned from the Cross River State Ministry of Education and joined the defunct Joint Maritime Labour Industrial Council in 2001 as Senior Dock Labour Officer prior to his sack due to a forgery scandal in 2006.
He had also served as Adjunct Lecturer with the National Open University of Nigeria between 2005 and 2009.
The lawyer holds a Teachers’ Grade II Certificate that he obtained from the St. Thomas’s College, Ogoja, Nigeria in 1988 and National Certificate in Education that he obtained from National Teachers Institute, Kaduna.
He was awarded a bachelors degree in Elementary Education in 1998 by the University of Calabar, Nigeria. The University of Calabar also awarded him M.Sc. and Ph.D degrees in Industrial Sociology in 2004 and 2010 respectively.
His exploits into the legal profession had him awarded LLB and BL degrees by the University of Calabar and the Nigerian Law School, Bwarri-Abuja, Nigeria in 2010 and 2012 respectively.
Dr Odey was appointed Personal Assistant (2011-2014) and later, Special Assistant (2014-2015) to Senator Benedict Ayade – Senator Representing the Northern Senatorial District of Cross River State in the National Assembly.
While in the University system, Odey’s main area of specialisation is Industrial Sociology. He has published over thirty scholarly papers, contributed to book chapters and many technical reports. He is a beneficiary of the University of Calabar based 2015 TETFund Intervention grant and National Intervention Grant.
He is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, Associate member, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management and Administration, Associate member, Chartered Institute of Mediators and Conciliators, Fellow of the Centre for African American Research Studies. He is married with children.
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