It will be recalled that on Thursday, following a Federal High Court in Kano, presided over by Justice M. N. Yunusa, which reportedly nullified the candidature of Otti, the Abia State Governor-elect, and all the candidates of the Labour Party in Abia as well as Kano States, Dr Alex Otti and Abia Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has been trading blame.
Dr Otti had through his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Ferdinand Ekeoma alleged that the report is “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”, describing it as “baseless, unfounded and misleading, and thus should be ignored”.
In a release titled, “Ignore PDP’s lies, Dr Alex Otti was not sacked by any court of law”, Ekeoma said “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.
“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:
“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 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”
“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.
“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.
“As 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 an effect on Dr Alex Otti who was not a party to the suit in Kano. It, therefore, exposes PDP’S gullibility to have expected the court to make an order against Dr Otti, an action that would have incurred the wrath of the NJC.
“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 2022, the 180-day timeline terminated on 20 December 2022.
“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 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”.
However in a swift reaction Friday night, the PDP said its attention has been drawn to the judgement by the Federal High Court in Kano “which sacked the Abia State governor-elect and other candidates elected under the platform of the Labour Party in Abia State on the ground that their Party did not submit its register of members to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, 30 days before the conduct of its primaries, one of the requirements for candidates to be eligible to contest elections in Nigeria.
According to the Abia PDP Vice Chairman/Acting State Publicity Secretary, Hon. Elder Abraham Amah in a release he signed, “One Mr Ibrahim Haruna-Ibrahim, had filed an application seeking the court to revoke and set aside the certificate of return issued to all LP candidates declared winner in Kano and Abia States and the judge relying on the provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act (As Amended) granted the prayer made by Mr Harun Ibrahim.
“The Abia PDP wishes to clarify to the good people of Abia State and Nigerians that it did not institute any case against the Abia governor-elect and the Labour Party in a Federal High Court in Kano.
“However, as a responsible political party, the Abia PDP is aware of the judgement and has mandated its legal team to study the judgement.
“The Abia PDP has already filed a petition against the Abia governor-elect and the Labour Party at the Abia State Election Petition Tribunal and is exploring legal options that would enable it to recover its mandate”.
The party urged Abians to remain calm and peaceful “as we await the judgement of the Election Petition Tribunal and we are very sure that justice would be served at the end”.
The Court in Suit No FHC/KN/CS/107/2023 filed by Mr Ibrahim Haruna Ibrahim against the Labour Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, ruled “the failure of the Labour Party to submit its membership register to the INEC within 30 days before their primaries renders the process invalid.“
The party that has not complied with the provisions of the electoral act cannot be said to have a candidate in an election and cannot be declared winner of an election; this being so, the votes credited to the 1st defendant is a wasted vote,” the Judge purportedly ruled.
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