The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the election of Alex Otti as duly elected governor of Abia.
While delivering the judgement, Justice Uwani Abba-Aji dismissed the appeal against the victory of Otti.
She maintained that the appeal by the PDP was devoid of merit.
Our correspondent reports that the appeals were submitted against Otti, who won the election on the platform of the Labour Party, LP, by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Okey Ahiwe, and his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Ikechi Emenike.
TMY Newspapers recalls that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared that Otti polled 175,466 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ahiwe of the PDP, who scored 88,529 votes in the gubernatorial election that was held on March 18, 2023.
Not satisfied with the outcome of the poll, the pair of Ahiwe and Emenike of the APC, who came in third, separately challenged it.
However, in a judgement delivered on October 6, 2023, the Abia State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal dismissed the petitions and upheld Otti’s election victory.
The verdict of the tribunal was affirmed by the Court of Appeal in Lagos, which also dismissed appeals that were entered against Otti by both the PDP and APC candidates.
