Supreme court reserves verdict on PDP and APC’s appeals against Governor Otti

The Supreme Court has reserved its judgement on appeals that seek to nullify the election of Governor Alex Otti of Abia State.

While the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Okey Ahiwe, claimed that over 84,000 votes that he garnered were wrongfully excluded during the result collation process, his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress, Chief Ikechi Emenike urged the apex court to set aside the concurrent judgements of both the tribunal and the appellate court, which upheld Otti’s election.

Emenike also claimed that Otti was not a member of the Labour Party at the time the governorship poll was held and was therefore not validly nominated as a candidate for the election.

A tribunal and a Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos had dismissed the lawsuits entered against Otti by both the PDP and APC candidates.

Ruling on the case on Wednesday, January 10, a five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Inyang Okoro okayed judgement on both appeals after all the parties adopted their briefs of argument. The apex court reserved its judgement until a date to be communicated to the parties involved in the appeal.