The Abia state governorship election petition tribunal Tuesday, concluded trial and adoption of final written addresses on the petition filed by the APC/Ikechi Emenike against Labour Party/Alex Otti; INEC, PDP/Okey Ahiwe and YPP/Enyinnaya C. Nwafor.
APC’s petition centered on the claim that Governor Alex Otti did not formally resign from the party before moving to Labour Party ahead of the governorship election and he also did not win the March 18, 2023 election in Abia state.
The Lead Counsel to the All Progressive Congress (APC), Tochukwu Maduka SAN, said his team have been able to tender evidences showing that Dr Alex Otti isn’t a member of the Labour Party as he did not formally resign from APC before the election.
The counsel claimed that the Labour Party failed to present before the tribunal, their members register which has Otti’s name therein. According to him, no evidence presented by Labour Party, showed that Otti was a member of the party before he contested the governorship election.
“The issue we placed before the tribunal today, is the issue of non-membership of Otti in Labour Party.
“Section 177 of the constitution requires that for one to contest for the office of a governor, you must be a member of a political party . We placed evidence before the tribunal showing that Alex Otti is a member of APC, the party agrees on that ; he contested APC’s primary election; we tendered register of members of APC.
“They (Labour Party) purported to have granted him waiver; now the evidence was that they conducted their primary election on the 1st of June 2022 and they purported to have granted Otti waiver on the 2nd of June 2022 . So after the primary election had been concluded, they purported to have granted Otti waiver. There is nothing proceeding from the respondent to challenge the case which we brought before the Court” Maduka stated.
He argued that according to the law, all the votes garnered by Otti are wasted votes; “if they are wasted votes, of course he cannot continue to be the governor of Abia state” Maduka added.
He noted also that Okey Ahiwe of the PDP, did not resign as Chief of Staff to Governor 30 days to the election and therefore, was not qualified to contest the election .
Similarly, he claimed that Engineer Enyinnaya Chima Nwafor, is a member of PDP and not a member of YPP.
On his own part, counsel to governor Alex Otti, Abiodun Owonikoko SAN, expressed optimism that the tribunal will give a fair and justifiable judgement, adding that “we believe that we have done our best , the rest is left to our Lordships”.
Speaking also, PDP’s lead Counsel, Paul Ananaba SAN, noted that they have tendered evidences before the tribunal to show that APC has no case against Okey Ahiwe/PDP.
“…..even though we agree that the petitioners (APC) proved their case against the 2nd and 3rd respondents which are Labour Party and Alex Otti”.
The tribunal adjourned till October 6, 2023 for judgement.
