Otti’s victory at the March 18, 2023 election is being contested by Okey Ahaiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved judgment on the appeal brought by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the 2023 governorship election in Abia State, seeking to nullify the victory of Abia State Governor Alex Otti in the March 18, 2023 election.
After listening to the arguments by the parties in the suit, the apex court reserved judgment on a date to be communicated to the parties and their counsels.
The Supreme Court panel of five justices, led by Justice Inyang Okoro, upon taking arguments on the preliminary motions on notice to strike out some alleged incompetent issues arising in the briefs of the appellants and the 2nd respondent, heard the appeal of Okey Ahaiwe and the PDP.
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Although PDP’s legal team was led by the immediate past Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Abubakar Malami, the arguments were however presented by Uche Ihediuwa, SAN.
While presenting the PDP’s submissions, Ihediuwa alleged that Ahiwe was short-changed with over 84,000 votes during the collation of the governorship election results.
The lawyer alleged that the agent of the PDP was chased away at the collation centre and as such, was not obliged to a copy of the results as required by law.
He claimed that his client had to approach the All Progressives Congress (APC) before it could access results sheets and discovered the alleged malpractices.
However, Otti, represented by Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN) asked the apex court to dismiss the appeal for want of merit.
Owonikoko said Otti scored over 174,000 votes at the March 18, 2023 governorship election to emerge victorious, adding that even if the purported 84,000 short-changed votes were added to PDP, the appellants would still not win.
He said that a purported result sheet produced by the PDP before the State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal was rejected because it could not be read by the witness of the party.
Otti of the LP was declared the winner of the governorship election in Abia by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 22.
He polled 175,466 votes while Ahiwe scored 88,529 votes.