Ogbonnaya Ikokwu, Umuahia
The Governor elect of Abia State Dr Alex otti, has asked his supporters to ignore the rumors making the rounds that he was sacked by a High Court sitting in Kano state on Thursday.
Otti, alleged that the report circulating on the social media was sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party led Abia state government was baseless, unfounded and misleading, and should be ignored.
In a statement signed by Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma, Special Adviser
Media and Publicity to Otti, stated that 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.
Ekeoma, pointed that the Federal High Court in Kano did not issue any order on Abia Labour Party candidates nor the Governor-Elect, adding that, 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.
Revealed that 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 statement read” 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.
“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.
“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 June 23 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.
“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”.