S’Court Affirms Otti’s Victory As Abia Governor

The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of Alex Otti as the Governor of Abia state.

Justice Uwani Abba-Aji who read the lead judgment, held that the appellants failed to prove substantial non-compliance in their appeal.

On the issue of Otti’s membership, the appellant had contended that he wasn’t validly nominated and sponsored by the Labour Party (LP) at the time of the election. However, the appellate court held that the issue of membership is an internal affair and as such lacks jurisdiction.

The apex court faulted the appellants for bringing the appeal to the court, tagging it as frivolous and vexatious.

Alex Otti had scored 175,466 votes to defeat Okey Ahiwe of the PDP, who polled 88,529 votes in the election early last year.