ABIA STATE GUBERNATORIAL: Tribunals Issue Major Decisions As LP Grows Anxious About Abia

Alex Otti 

Over the course of the week, governorship election petition tribunals delivered decisions that may be regarded as landmarks in all states.

Only one governor has been fired by the tribunal thus far. Others had their triumphs acknowledged, at least temporarily.

Both the dominant opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, won several states.

The tribunal dismissed the appeals brought before it by the APC and the Labor Party, upholding the PDP's victories in the states of Plateau, Bauchi, Enugu, and Zamfara last Monday.

In Plateau, the tribunal upheld Caleb Mutfwang's election as the state's legitimate governor.

The case submitted by the APC and its governorship candidate Nentawe Yiltwatda was denied by a three-member tribunal bench chaired by Justice Sunday because it lacked merit.

In a similar vein, the court upheld Senator Bala Mohammed's election as the legitimate governor of Bauchi State. The three-person panel, led by P.T. Kwahar, gave the verdict.

The plea filed by the APC and its candidate, Sadique Abubakar, a former chief of the air staff, to void Mohammed's second term in office was rejected by the panel.

In Enugu, the PDP also kept its victory as the tribunal validated Peter Mbah's election as governor.

The Labour Party and its candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, had their petitions rejected by a three-member tribunal panel headed by Justice Kudirat Murayo, who insisted that they were unable to provide any evidence to support their claims.

The judiciary in Zamfara State rejected the APC's and its candidate for governor, Bello Matawalle, appeal challenging the designation of Dauda Lawal of the PDP as the victor of the 18 March governorship election.

The tribunal ruled that the APC had not provided sufficient evidence to support its claims that the results from Maradun Local Government had been excluded and that certain State wards had not been included in the poll.

On the other hand, the APC retained its victory in Benue State and seized control of Kano State from the New Nigerian Peoples Party, or NNPP.

In Benue, the tribunal rejected the PDP's and Titus Uba's suit disputing the results of the March 18 gubernatorial election, which resulted in Governor Hyacinth Alia winning.

The dismissal of NNPP in Kano State was the most surprising of the recent rulings issued by the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in several states.

As the tribunal removed Governor Yusuf Abba and proclaimed Nasir Gawuna of the APC the victor of the March 18 election, the NNPP lost its lone governorship seat to the ruling party in Kano in what appears to be a strange twist of fate.

Wednesday's judgment was given by the three-judge panel, presided over by Oluyemi Asadebay, reportedly for security reasons. More than 165,663 votes cast in favor of NNPP were declared illegitimate by the court.

The court removed the invalid votes, noting that the 165,663 ballots were invalid since they were neither stamped nor signed.

The petitioner's claim that part of the votes cast were unlawful because the election did not follow the requirements of the Electoral Act of 2022 has been substantiated, according to the tribunal.

The development in Kano State has triggered palpable tension in Abia State where the ruling Party is also seeking to truncate the victory of the incumbent governor, Alex Otti of the Labour Party.

According to information obtained, the Abia State Election Petition Tribunal set October 6, 2023, for the delivery of its ruling on the petition contesting the declaration of Mr. Otti as the winner of the March 18 election.

Chief Ikechi Emenike, the APC candidate for governor, had petitioned the court to have Otti fired on claims that he had not resigned from the ruling party before switching to the opposition Labour Party in time for the general elections of 2023.

Otti's name, according to the APC candidate, was not on the Labour Party register prior to his candidacy as the state's nominee for governor on the party's behalf.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, the Young Progressives Party, and Okey Ahaiwe, a candidate for the PDP, also signed the petition.

The suspicion might not be unrelated to the recent removal of three House of Representatives candidates for the Labour Party by the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Umuahia.

Mr. Ceekay Igara, the chairman of the Labour Party in Abia State, claimed on Saturday that the incumbent party is supposedly doing everything in its power to sabotage Otti's victory.

He said, "It is like APC has bought the court because they struck out a document and later when they were rounding up, they exhumed the case about the same document which they earlier struck out.

"Now, the judges are relying on that case and these are issues that have been settled in the appeal court.

"It is obvious that the court has already given all our seats to them. Apart from the governorship seat, they have given all the senatorial and House of Rep seats to the oppositions."

He did, however, express confidence that the governor would prevail in the legal case.

"I think he will win. One thing is certain, you cannot shave a man's hair in his absence. They cannot judge based on any other thing apart from what was presented to them. I was also a witness in most of the cases.

"All the cases were centred on election matters before they brought the issue of NYSC. I'm sure they can't do anything outside that," he said.

Hon. Debo Ologunagba, the PDP's national publicity secretary, responded by stating that the party is anticipating the dismissal of Governor Otti.

He claims that, PDP "presented a good case in Abia and we are expecting the tribunal to deliver a good judgement in our favour."

Debo claimed that the rulings on the PDP's victories in Zamfara, Bauchi, Enugu, and Plateau were consistent with the decisions taken by the electorates during the election.

He stated, "Like you always hear from the presidential candidate of our party, we respect the judges and their judgements so we welcome their verdicts.

"They are in line with what took place at the polling units on the day of election.

"We celebrate that because that is the will of the people."