Following last week’s judgement of the Abia Governorship Election Tribunal that upheld the election of Dr. Alex Otti on March 18, 2023, the petitioners, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), have headed to the Appeal Court.

The tribunal, last Friday, in Umuahia, the state capital, dismissed the petitions filed by the APC and PDP in favour of the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Otti.

Abia APC Chairman, Dr. Kingsley Ononogbu, tasked the Appeal Court to overturn the judgement of the tribunal in favour of its candidate, Dr. Ikechi Emenike, who came fourth with 24, 091 votes, and without winning any of the 17 local councils of the state.

Emenike, in his petition, challenged Otti’s victory, arguing that Otti, PDP’s Okey Ahaiwe and Enyinnaya Nwafor of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) were not qualified to be governorship candidates.

He contended that Otti was not yet a member of LP before he sought for and won the ticket, while Ahaiwe did not relinquish his Chief of Staff post to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu before emerging as the PDP guber candidate after the death of the former candidate, Prof. Uche Ikonne.

For the YPP candidate, Emenike alleged that he had earlier participated in the PDP guber primary.

Emenike consequently urged the tribunal to declare that he was the only qualified candidate, and should be declared the rightful winner.

Recall that Otti had polled 175, 467 votes,  Ahaiwe of PDP  88,529 and  Nwafor of YPP  28,972 votes, emerging in first, second and third position winners, respectively, leaving Emenike at the fourth position.

Rejecting last Friday’s judgement of the tribunal, Ononogbu, in a statement, described it as unacceptable and “the mother of miscarriage of justice.”

He stated that having unequivocally condemned the judgement, his party has mandated its legal team to file for an appeal at the Appeal Court.

Reacting to the judgement, Otti, through his Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma, disclosed that he never entertained any atom of fear over the petitions filed by his rivals in the March 18, 2023, governorship poll.

He, therefore, called on his defeated opponents and petitioners to accept the judgements with humility and equanimity and join hands with him to work for development of the state.