The Owerri division of the Appeal Court headed by Justice R.A Adah, Saturday, struck out the appeal filled by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate in the 2019 governorship election in Abia State, Alex Otti, and validated Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s victory of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Recall earlier that a three-man panel of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, the Abia state capital, and chaired by Justice A.L. Ogumoye, had dismissed the petition filed by 2019 APGA gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Alex Otti against the declaration of Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu.
The tribunal ruled that the petitioner failed to prove the case of over voting, non compliance to the INEC election guideline and electoral act.
Alex Otti had prayed the tribunal to cancel fifteen out of the seventeen local government areas election results in Abia State.
Otti claimed that the respondents, PDP, and Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, who was the governorship candidate of PDP, perpetrated excessive malpractice in those LGAs in the last March 9 2019 election conducted in the state.
Meanwhile, the details of the Owerri Appeal court verdict dismissing Alex otti’s suit seeking the cancellation of the results of fifteen local government areas out of the seventeen LGA’s of Abia state during the March 9 2019 gubernatorial election conducted in the state will be made available shortly.
