Governor Alex Otti of Abia State can now breath a sigh of relief, as the Supreme Court on Friday affirmed his election as the governor of that state.
The Court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel of justices, dismissed two separate appeals seeking to nullify the election victory of Otti of the Labour Party (LP) in the governorship poll held on March 18, 2023.
Led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, the apex court held that the appeals of Chief Okey Ahiwe, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), and his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Chief Ikechi Emenike, lacked merit.
While reading the lead judgement, Justice Abba-Aji held that there was no legal basis to tamper with the concurrent findings of the Abia Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which had earlier upheld Otti’s victory.
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The apex court noted that the argument of the appellants that Otti was not a bona fide member of the LP at the time the governorship election was held was immaterial in the face of Section 177(c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
It further said that since Otti did not stand for the election as an independent candidate, there was no doubt that he was nominated and sponsored by a political party.
The court also ruled that even if Otti’s name was not on the Labour Party’s membership list, the appellants lacked the locus standi to challenge the matter in court, as doing so would amount to “crying more than the bereaved.”
It held that issues bordering on the nomination and sponsorship of a candidate in an election were a domestic affair of a political party, which the law forbade courts from meddling in.
While dismissing both appeals, the apex court held that the appeals contained issues that predated the governorship election and had therefore become statute-barred.
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