Labour Party’s Alex Otti gets court order to become Abia governor on May 29

On May 29, Alex Otti, the candidate for governor of Abia State, will be sworn in by a court order.

This comes after the Federal High Court in Kano’s recent ruling, which resulted in the dismissal of him and other Labour Party candidates, was granted a stay of execution by the court of appeal in Kano.

In Kano, Abia, and other states, the judgment had stated that all votes cast for candidates from the Labour Party (LP) were invalid.

Otti then submitted an application in response to the ruling that called into question his inauguration.

Otti’s legal team asked that the lower court’s ruling be postponed while a decision is made and that Otti be included to the case as an interested party.

The Appeal Court has granted Otti’s request, putting the lower court’s judgment on hold.

It should be noted that following the judgment of the lower court, a subsequent appeal was filed by Umeh Kalu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) representing the Labour Party. Kalu urged the higher court to overturn the trial court’s judgment.

Kalu argued that the trial court had made a legal error and caused a miscarriage of justice by entertaining a lawsuit that lacked any legal basis.

The initial lawsuit was filed by Ibrahim Haruna Ibrahim, who sought the nullification of the LP candidates’ votes in the 2023 election. Ibrahim also requested the high court to invalidate the Certificate of Return issued to the LP candidates and instructed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to award the first runner-up in all constituencies won by LP candidates.

In his ruling, Justice M.N. Yunusa declared all LP votes as “wasted votes” due to the party’s failure to submit its membership register to INEC within the stipulated 30-day period before their primaries

However, the trial judge declined to address the issuance of the Certificate of Return, stating that “the parties that participated in Abia state are not parties before this court.”