The Supreme Court will today, Friday January 12th deliver judgment in the appeals brought by the PDP, the APC and their governorship candidates against the election of Governor Alex Otti of Abia State.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos had, in a unanimous decision in December last year, upheld the victory of Otti at the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Abia state, saying that it conformed with the provisions of the Electoral Act and dismissed the petitions brought by the appellants challenging Otti’s election for lacking in merit.
PDP and its candidate, Okey Ahiwe as well as the Governorship Candidate of the APC, Chief Ikechi Emenike and his party had, in their appeals asked the apex court to set aside the judgement of the lower courts that affirmed the election of Otti of the Labour Party (LP) as Abia state governor.
When the appeal was called on Wednesday Uche Ihediuwa (SAN), representing the PDP alleged that Ahiwe was short-changed with over 84,000 votes during the collation of the governorship election results.
The lawyer alleged that the agent of the PDP was chased away at the collation center and as such, was not obliged a copy of the results as required by law.
He claimed that his client had to approach the APC before it could access results sheets and discovered the alleged malpractices.
However, Otti, represented by Abiodun John Owonikoko (SAN), asked the apex court to dismiss the appeal for want of merit.
Owonikoko informed the court that Otti scored over 174,000 votes at the March 18, 2023 governorship election to emerge victorious adding that even if the purported 84,000 short-changed votes were added to PDP, the appellants would still not win.
He said, a purported result sheet produced by the PDP before the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal was rejected because it could not be read by the witness of the party.
It would be be recalled that Otti of the LP was declared the winner of the governorship election in the Abia State by INEC on March 22, 2023, with Ahiwe of the PDP coming second in the election.
Ahiwe and the governorship candidate of the APC, Ikechi Emenike, separately challenged Otti’s victory at the Abia State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which, in its judgment delivered on October 6, 2023 dismissed their petitions and affirmed Otti’s election.
The judgment of the tribunal was later affirmed by the Court of Appeal, which held that issues of political party membership is a pre-election matter, which also falls within the jurisdiction of the political party.
The appellate court further said since Otti joined the Labour Party, won its primary election and his name was submitted to INEC, he was qualified to contest the election.
