Supreme Court upholds Otti’s election as Abia governor

The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Alex Otti as the duly elected governor of Abia State.

Justice Uwani Abba-Aji while delivering judgement on Friday, January 12, 2024, dismissed the appeal against the victory of Otti.

Justice Abba-Aji held that the appeal by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lacked merit.

The appeals were lodged against Otti, who won his election on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) by the governorship candidate of the PDP, Okey Ahiwe, and his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ikechi Emenike.

READ ALSO: Appeal Court affirms Otti as Abia governor

It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared that Otti polled 175,466 votes to defeat Ahiwe of the PDP, who scored 88,529 votes in the gubernatorial poll that was held on March 18, 2023.

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, both Ahiwe and Emenike, who came in third, separately challenged it.

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

The Star