The Supreme Court has on Friday 12 January 2024 upheld the election of governor Alex Otti of Abia state and dismissed the appeals by the People’s Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Okey Ahiwe, and Ikechi Emenike of the APC
The Apex Court had on Wednesday, reserved judgment in the appeals by the PDP and the APC against the election of Otti
Earlier, the five-man panel headed by John Okoro adjourned the matters for judgments after taking arguments from parties involved in the matter.
As declared by INEC, recall that Otti of the Labour Party 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.
In a related development, the Supreme Court has also affirmed the election of the Ebonyi state governor Francis Nwifuru.
In its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Tijjani Abubakar, the court dismissed two separate appeals that sought to unseat Nwifuru of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from office.
It held that the appeals were “patently unmeritorious.”
The appeals, which challenged the return of Nwifuru as the valid winner of the governorship poll that was held in the state on March 18, 2023, were lodged by candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Ifeanyi Odii, and his counterpart from the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Prof. Benard Odoh.
The Court held that it found no reason to set aside the concurrent verdicts of the Ebonyi state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which upheld Nwifuru’s election.
Recalled that the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, had earlier declared that Nwifuru polled a total of 199,131 votes across the 13 Local Government Areas of the state to beat his closest rival, Dr. Odii of the PDP, who scored 80,191 votes.
Unsatisfied with the election results, both candidates of the PDP and APGA approached the tribunal to challenge the outcome of the election.
