THE Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Alex Otti of the Labour Party (LP) as the duly elected governor of Abia state.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Okey Ahiwe filed an appeal against Otti’s election, which the Supreme Court’s five-member panel of justices under the leadership of Uwani Abba-Aji, dismissed on Friday, January 12.
The panel described the appeal as “lacking in merit.”
The Supreme Court also dismissed the petition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Ikechi Emenike.
The Court of Appeal in Lagos on Saturday, December 2, affirmed Otti’s election as the duly elected governor of Abia state.
The court dismissed appeals from the APC and PDP and their governorship candidates against Otti.
The three-member Appeal Court panel unanimously upheld Otti’s victory, stating that it complied with the Election Act.
The appellate court determined that the appellants’ petitions lacked merit because they were similar to “a comedy skit brought to a democratic setting”.
According to the court, questions about political party membership are pre-election matters.
It added that Otti was eligible to run because he had joined the LP won the party’s primary, and his name was registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The ICIR reported that INEC declared Otti the winner of the governorship election conducted in Abia state on March 18.
Otti defeated his major rival, Okey Ahiwe of the PDP.
The LP candidate secured 175,467 votes, while Ahiwe got 88,529.
Enyinnaya Nwafor of the Young Peoples Party (YPP) scored 28,972 votes to finish third.
The Returning Officer for INEC in the state, Nnenna Nnannaya-Oti, declared Otti the winner after resuming the final collation of governorship election results in Umuahia, the state capital, on Wednesday, March 2.
A reporter with the ICIR
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