Supreme Court affirms Governor Okezie Ikpeazu victory

Nigeria’s Supreme Court on Wednesday confirmed the victory of the Peoples Democratic Party Governor Okezie Ikpeazu in the Abia State governorship election.

A seven-man panel of the court dismissed the appeal of the All Progressives Grand Alliance’s Alex Otti.

Justice Paul Galinje, a member of the panel, read the court’s unanimous judgement.

Galinje said the Otti’s reliance solely on the smart card readers in proving the alleged over-voting was wrong.

He added that the law is clear that the petitioner must tender the voter’s register, and should relate the document to the specific area where the documents were affected.

The card reader print out tendered by the appellants at the tribunal cannot be inserted into the constitution or electoral act which stipulates the yardstick for proving over voting, the judge said.

He also mentioned that the appellants failed to provide credible evidence to prove their case.

He finally held that the two lower courts are right to dismiss the appeal and it will suffer the same fate in the apex court.