The Supreme court had retained Okezie Victor Ikpeazu as the Governor of Abia State.
His election was upheld by the apex court threw out the legal challenge by Dr Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Ikpeazu, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had been declared winner of the April 11, governorship poll and the supplementary election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Otti, however, cried foul and approached the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in the state capital, Umuahia, praying the Justice Usman Bwala-led three-member panel to declare him the winner of the poll.
Otti claimed that he won majority of lawful votes if votes from the three local government areas of Isiala Ngwa North, Osisioma and Obingwa were subtracted from the total votes cast in the entire 17 local governments of Abia.
Otti and his APGA claimed that there was over-voting in the said three local governments where, he added, irregularities and violence charaterised the polling.
The tribunal, however, concurred with INEC that Ikpeazu was validly returned as the actual winner of the 2015 Abia governorship contest. It held that Otti failed to prove his allegation of over-voting in the three local governments, adding that he had abandoned his case by failing to appear before the panel to testify and prove his case. The tribunal told Otti that his reliefs were “ungrantable”, and dismissed his case for lack of merit.
Otti, not daunted, took his case to the Appeal Court, Owerri Division before a five-man panel headed by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi Omoleye, urging the court to set aside the ruling of the tribunal and declare him the winner of the Abia 2015 governorship contest. The five wise men said that Otti’s case has merit.
They also held that the appellant (Otti) proved beyond reasonable doubt that there was over-voting in the three contentious local governments; yanked off votes recorded in them and held that Otti scored majority of the lawful votes cast, met the required spread and declared him winner of the exercise and ruled that INEC should withdraw the Certificate of Return hitherto issued to Ikpeazu and issue same to Otti.
Ikpeazu, dazed by the verdict of the Court of Appeal, raced to the apex court, praying the seven jurists sitting over the appeal to set aside the appellate court’s ruling and allow him to retain his mandate, with Otti filing a cross appeal which the apex court dismissed.
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