January 12, (THEWILL) – The Supreme Court has affirmed the victory of Governor Alex Otti of the Labour Party (LP), in the March 18th gubernatorial election in Abia State.
The apex court in its lead judgment delivered by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, dismissed the two separate appeals filled before it by Chief Okey Ahiwe, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ikechi Emenike.
THEWILL reports that the appellants had prayed the apex court to set aside the judgement of the Appeal Court and the Abia State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which earlier upheld Otti’s election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared Alex Otti of the Labour Party as the winner of the 2023 Governorship Election in Abia after he polled 175,466 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ahiwe of the PDP, who scored 88,529 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, both Ahiwe and Emenike of the APC, who came in third, separately challenged the outcome of the guber poll.
The Abia State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had on October 6, 2023, dismissed the petitions and upheld Otti’s election victory. The judgement was also upheld by the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal.
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