Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The Supreme Court, Wednesday, reserved judgment on the appeal brought by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the 2023 governorship election in Abia State, Chief Okey Ahiwe, against the victory of Governor Alex Otti.
After listening to the arguments by parties in the suit, the apex court reserved judgment on a date to be communicated to the parties and their counsels.
The Supreme Court panel of five Justices, led by Hon. Justice Inyang Okoro, upon taking arguments on the preliminary motions on notice to strike out some alleged incompetent issues arising in the briefs of the Appellants and the 2nd Respondent, heard the appeal of Chief Okey Ahaiwe/PDP and reserved Judgement on a date to be communicated to the parties and their counsel.
Counsel to PDP, Uche Ihediwa, SAN, struggled to answer the question posed by the apex court on what was the votes scored by PDP as shown in the IREV result for Obingwa LGA.
Ihediwa SAN also was unable to explain why he failed to front load/attach the Obingwa LGA result of the purported 108,000 votes scored by PDP to his Petition.
Throwing light on the Obingwa LGA, Otti’s lawyer, A.J Owonikoko SAN, informed the court that the accredited voters for the State House of Assembly and the Governorship for the same day was about 27,000 voters.
Counsel to Labour Party, Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, in his submission “argued” that the appeal is lacking in merit as the Obingwa LGA 108,000 result relied upon by PDP “bore” the stamp of Ward Collation Agent instead of Local Government Collation Agent as stipulated by the Law.
