The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Governor Alex Otti of Abia State.
In affirming the industrialist-turned-politician’s election, the apex court dismissed the appeals by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Okey Ahiwe, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Ikechi Emenike.
Reading the judgement, Justice Uwani Abba-Aji held that the PDP and APC’s appeals lacked merit as they failed to prove substantial non-compliance in their appeal.
On the issue of Otti’s membership, the appellants had contended that Otti wasn’t validly nominated and sponsored by the Labour Party (LP) at the time of the election.
However, the apex court held that the issue of membership is an internal affair and as such lacks jurisdiction.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared that Otti polled 175,466 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ahiwe of the PDP, who scored 88,529 votes, in the gubernatorial poll that was held on March 18, 2023.
However, Ahiwe and Emenike of APC challenged INEC’s declaration and lost at both the governorship election petition tribunal and Court of Appeal.