The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the election of Alex Otti of the Labour Party, LP, as the duly elected governor of Abia State in the 2023 governorship poll.
Justice Uwani Abba-Aji while delivering the judgment dismissed the appeal against the victory of Otti and held that the appeal by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP lacked merit.
Credible news reports that the appeals were lodged against Otti, who won his election on the platform of the LP, by the candidate of the PDP, Chief Okey Ahiwe and his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Ikechi Emenike.
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Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Otti winner of the election after polling 175,466 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ahiwe of the PDP, who scored 88,529 votes in the election.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, both Ahiwe and Emenike of the APC, who came in third, separately challenged it.
However, in a judgement delivered on October 6, 2023, the Abia State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal dismissed the petitions and upheld Otti’s election victory.
The verdict of the tribunal was affirmed by the Court of Appeal in Lagos, which also dismissed appeals that were entered against Otti by both the PDP and APC candidates.
