The election of the Abia State Governor-Elect, Alex Otti, has been nullified by a Federal High Court seated in Kano State which was presided over by Justice M N Yunusa.
Justice Yunusa on Friday also announced the nullification of all candidates who contested through the Labour Party in Abia and Kano States respectively.
What The Court Ruled on the Labour Party Candidates
Citing the provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act, the court ruled that the candidates did not emerge in compliance with the act.
The Suit tagged FHC/KN/CS/107/2023 was filled by Mr Ibrahim Haruna Ibrahim against the LP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
It ruled that the failure of the Labour Party to submit its membership register to the INEC within 30 days before their primaries renders the process null and void.
Quoting the judge, he declared thus:
The party that has not complied with the provisions of the electoral act cannot be said to have candidates 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 Situation of Abia State Ahead of Inauguration Day 2023
Labour Party’s Abia State Governor-Elect, Alex Otti, had constituted a 75-member inauguration committee on April 14th ahead of the handing over day slates for May 29th.
Otti was declared the winner of the March 18th Gubernatorial elections by the INEC. He was announced to have won 10 local government areas of 17 in Abia State polling 175,467 votes.
At the elections, Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was second polling 88,529 votes against Enyinnaya Nwafor of the Young Peoples Party (YPP) who was third with 28,972 votes.
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