The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the victory of Alex Otti of the Labour Party (LP) as the Governor of Abia State.
In its judgement, the Apex Court dismissed the appeals by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Okey Ahiwe, and Ikechi Emenike of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against Governor Otti.
The five-man panel of the apex court, in a unanimous decision, dismissed the appeals by the two oppositions because their appeals lacked merit.
It held that there was no legal basis to tamper with the findings of the Abia State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which upheld Otti’s election.
The panel also ruled that Otti was a bona fide member of the LP at the time the governorship election was held, as against arguments by the appellants that he was never a member of the Labour Party.
News About Nigeria recalls that according to the result announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Otti polled 175,466 votes to defeat his closest rival, Okey Ahiwe of the PDP, who scored 88,529 votes in the March 18 governorship election.
Dissatisfied with the result of the March 18 gubernatorial election, both the candidates of the APC and the PDP headed to the tribunal, where their petitions against Governor Otti were nullified because they lacked merit.
Following the judgement of the tribunal, the parties headed for the Appeal court with appeals seeking to sack Governor Otti.
However, the appellate court in its judgment on December 2, 2023, held that the appellants failed to provide sufficient evidence in their appeal to show that, the decision of the lower tribunal was false.
The three-member panel of the appeal court sitting in Lagos also affirmed Otti’s election as Governor of Abia state.
