By Charles Adingupu
Despite yesterday’s court ruling which nullified his candidature and that of other Labour Party candidates in Abia and Kano States, the Abia State Governor-Elect, Alex Otti has assured his supporters that he remains the next governor of the state and expects to be sworn in on May 29.
The New Diplomat has earlier reported Friday that Justice Mohammed Yunusa of the Federal High Court Kano nullified the candidature Governor-elect Otti and all the candidates of the LP in Abia and Kano States respectively.
The Court had maintained that their emergence as candidates in those elections was not in compliance with the provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act.
In a swift reaction to the judgement, Spokesman to the Abia State Governor-elect, Ferdinand Ekeoma issued a release confirming that inauguration plans are continuing despite the development.
According to him, “we would like to assure Abians in particular and Nigerians in general that the nationally celebrated mandate given to Dr. Alex Otti by the long-suffering Abia masses is safe and secure, and can never be stolen by strange usurpers who are pained and frightened by the reality of their imminent exit from power in the next few days.
“In the next few days, Dr. Alex Otti will be sworn in as governor to enable him to commence the process of rebuilding and recovering our state that was destroyed and plundered by the PDP.
“So Abians are enjoined to ignore the FAKE REPORT claiming that he has been sacked by a High Court in Kano.”
He accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of spreading misinformation following the development.
“The report being sponsored and widely circulated by the PDP and Abia state government alleging that a Kano High Court has sacked the Abia Governor-Elect, Dr. Alex Otti, OFR is baseless, unfounded and misleading, and thus should be ignored.
“For the records, though the perpetrators targeted the Abia Governor-Elect and the people of Abia for that legal coup, they were not courageous enough to confront him in the open, hence he was never joined as a party for fear that his eminently qualified lawyers would take the perpetrators to the cleaners,” the release declared.
Following are excerpts from a copy of the release obtained by The New Diplomat:
“IGNORE PDP’S LIES, DR. ALEX OTTI WAS NOT SACKED BY ANY COURT OF LAW.”
To put the records straight and reassure our teeming supporters and millions of Abians who are still celebrating the liberation of Abia, we wish to emphatically state as follows:
1. That the Federal High Court in Kano did not issue any order on Abia Labour Party candidates nor the Governor-Elect, Dr. Alex Otti because, unlike those who brought the suit to steal the Abia peoples’ mandate, the court was conscious of its powers and careful not not to fall into the booby trap set for it by the PDP and Abia state government.
To that effect, the court specifically stated in Clause 9 of the judgment “The candidates that participated in the election in Abia state are not parties before this court and as such the court lacks the jurisdiction to make an order for the issuance of Certificate of Return to them”
2. The Federal High Court in Abia had entertained similar cases as Pre-election matters involving some PDP candidates vs LP Candidates, and the matters were adjudicated up to the Supreme Court. In all the cases, Labour Party won at the Federal High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court respectively.
3. The case brought by the petitioners is a pre election matter and under Section 285(14)(a) of the Electoral Act, the petitioners have no locus standi as they were not aspirants in LP.
Section 285 (9), requires that it must be filed within 14 days of the occurrence of the event. In other words, the suit should have been filed before the end of June last year. On the contrary, this suit was filed on May 11, 2023 and a week later, the very “efficient” Judge delivered judgement.
4. Like earlier stated, the FHC in Kano does not have jurisdiction over Abia State, therefore it is impossible for any decision emanating from the court to have effect on Dr. Alex Otti who was not a party to the suit in Kano. It therefore exposes PDP’S gulibility to have expected the court to make an order against Dr. Otti, an action that would have incurred the wrath of the NJC.
5. For purposes of further elucidation, Dr. Alex Otti became the Governorship Candidate of Labour Party on 09 June 2022, then any pre-election litigation questioning his candidacy must have been commenced not later than 14 days from 09 June 2022— meaning the case must be filed not later than 23 June 2022
Any case filed not later than 23 June 2022 must be determined not later than 180 days from the date of filing.
Again, assuming it was filed on 23 June of 2022, the 180-day timeline terminated on 20 December, 2022.
6. Finally, we would like to assure Abians in particular and Nigerians in general that the nationally celebrated mandate given to Dr. Alex Otti by the long suffering Abia masses is safe and secure and can never be stolen by strange usurpers who are pained and frightened by the reality of their imminent exit from power in the next few days.
In the next few days, Dr. Alex Otti will be sworn in as governor to enable him commence the process of rebuilding and recovering our state that was destroyed and plundered by the PDP, so Abians are enjoined to ignore the FAKE REPORT claiming that he has been sacked by a High Court in Kano.”
