Supreme Court upholds election of Otti as Abia Governor 

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

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

Abba-Aji held that the appeal by the PDP lacked merit.

The appeals were lodged against Otti, who won his election on the platform of the Labour Party, by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Okey Ahiwe, and his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress, Chief Ikechi Emenike.

It will be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared that Otti polled 175,466 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ahiwe of the PDP, who scored 88,529 votes in the State’s governorship election that was held on March 18, 2023.

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Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, both Ahiwe and Emenike of the APC, 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.