12th January, 2024
By Ebere Agozie
Alex Otti of Abia State was one of the governors whose victories in the 18 March 2023 governorship election were upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday
The panel of the Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji affirmed the victory of Alex Otti while dismissing the appeal against his victory in the Abia governorship election.
Abba-Aji declared that the the appeal of the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate in the election against the judgment of Court of Appeal affirming the victory of Otti lacked merit.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared that Otti polled 175,466 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP , who scored 88,529 votes in the gubernatorial poll that was held on March 18, 2023.
The victory of Alex Otti of the Labour Party, LP was challenged by the candidate of the PDP, Chief Okey Ahiwe, and his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Ikechi Emenike, who came third separately.
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.(NAN)