Gov Otti Prevails As Tribunal affirms His Victory, Throws Out Petitions By PDP, APC Guber Candidates

Governor Alex Otti of Labour Party on Friday prevailed as the winner of March 18, 2023 gubernatorial election after the Governorship Election Petitions sitting in Umuahia affirmed his victory.

This is as the Justice HTD Gwadah-led three man panel dismissed all the petitions filed against Otti by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Okey Ahiwe; and his All Progressives Congress, APC, counterpart, High Chief Ikechi Emenike, and their respective parties, Vanguard reports.

Other members of the panel were Justice Omolora Adeyemi, and Justice Boniface Ngyou.
Ahiwe’s three grounds of the petition were dismissed for lack of merit, as the tribunal subsequently resolved all of them in favour of Otti.

The grounds of petition as formulated by the PDP candidate were that Otti was not qualified to run for the governorship election; he did not win majority of lawful votes; and that the election was marred by irregularities.

Delivering judgment on the issues, the tribunal held that the nomination and sponsorship of a candidate for an election, “are domestic affairs of a political party”, hence a non member of the party lacks locus to challenge it at the court.

The tribunal further dismissed the motion by the PDP candidate that Otti did not submit his National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, discharge certificate, and held that NYSC certificate was not a factor for qualification or disqualification for contesting for governorship election.

On the alleged irregularities and non compliance with the Electoral Act, the tribunal held that the Petitioners could not provide evidence to substantiate such claims, hence it was deemed that they dumped their petition.

According to the tribunal, the Petitioners failed to provide witnesses in all the polling units where it claimed there were over-voting, hence, it struck out the motion for lack of evidence.

It further held that the PDP candidate could not provide proof of his allegation that the result of Obingwa Local Government Area was taken to Abuja and doctored in favour of the LP candidate.

The tribunal, therefore, dismissed all the prayers of the PDP candidate and his party.

In a related judgment, the tribunal struck out all the prayers by Chief Emenike and the APC, describing the Petitioners as meddlesome interlopers for seeking the nullification of Otti’s victory for alleged non nomination and sponsorship by his party.
The tribunal held that “it is now cast on iron that non nomination and sponsorship of a candidate by a political party is an internal affairs of the party and not justiciable”.

It held that non member of the party lacks the locus to challenge such action in the court, adding that it is only an aspirant of the party who participated in its primary election that can challenge such at the High Court.