ASIDE from the day former Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida announced the creation of the state on August 27, 1991, no other event has generated so much widespread joy and celebration in the state than the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

The Court entertained the appeal of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the April general elections in Abia, in Owerri, Imo State, and nullified the election of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, as governor.

The five-member panel of eminent jurists, headed by
Hon. Justice Oyebisi Omoleye, declared the APGA candidate, Dr. Alex Otti as the winner of the election, having won the highest number of votes cast and having met the requisite constitutional spread and ordered that he be sworn in immediately.

The Appeal Court upheld Otti’s allegations of over-voting and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act in the elections in three local governments of Obingwa, Osisioma and Isialangwa North, a fundamental issue, which the Justice Usman Bwala-led tribunal that handled Otti’s petition in Umuahia for 180 days, glossed over. The jurist’s final pronouncement of annulment sent the courtroom on fire as both the appellants’ lawyers and his supporters went into an uncontrollable jubilation. Television cameramen had hectic time trying to capture the multitude of Abia State indigenes in Owerri, who had thronged the court premises to catch the news of the landmark judgment first hand. Many of them described it as ‘’justice for Abia people.’’

As soon as the news of the judgment filtered into Aba, the commercial nerve centre of the state; Umuahia, state capital, Ohafia, Arochukwu, Umunneochi and Obehie in Ukwa West Local Government Area, the atmosphere became fully charged. It later erupted into spontaneous celebration in all the nooks and crannies of the towns.

The mood of the people is understandable. Twice they had their drums ready to be rolled out to the streets to celebrate the emergence of their choice candidate in the
April governorship poll but twice, they were denied the opportunity. The first was in the early hours of Sunday, April 26, when the state Returning Officer, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba reversed the cancellation of the contentious results of Obingwa, Osisioma and Isialangwa North LGAs, and went ahead to announce Okezie as the winner of the election, against Otti. Before this announcement, Otti was leading by a wide margin in nine out of the 14 local councils already collated and announced. Thus, the people’s expectation that God had answered their prayers and that their votes were eventually allowed to count in the election, suddenly evaporated into the thin air.

It was a monumental disappointment that left sour taste in the people. The villages, towns and cities went cold, reminiscent of a state in deep mourning. This was truly the mood that characterised the state.

Kennedy Onwuka, a village head in Ohafia summarised the mood of Abia people in the wake of the historic Owerri judgment of the New Year eve thus: “Contrary to what we experienced on April 25, when INEC announced Okezie as the governor-elect, today, the mood has changed because God has remembered Abia State. We voted enmasse for Dr. Alex Otti. The voting pattern in Abia North, Abia South and Abia Central cut across age, religion and ethnicity. Even the clergymen voted for Otti, because we know his pedigree and we believe that he will replicate the feat in Abia.”
• Chinyere wrote from Umuahia, Abia State