The Court of Appeal, sitting in Owerri,
Imo State capital, dismissed two
separate but related appeals filed by
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
in Abia State against the
governorship candidate of the All
Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)
in the April general elections, Dr. Alex
Otti,and his patty.
The appeals originated from a
decision of the Abia State
Governorship Election Petition
Tribunal, sitting in Umuahia, to take
all the preliminary objections, filed by
the litigants, along with the judgment
of the substantive petition.
But dissatisfied with the tribunal’s
decision, the party headed for the
Court of Appeal, urging it to set aside
the decision of the tribunal and
compel it to deliver ruling on the
pending motions.
In one of the motions, the ruling-PDP
urged the tribunal to strike out Otti’s
petition on the grounds that it was
not duly signed and that the
necessary fees were not paid in
compliance with the provisions of the
Electoral Act 2010, as amended.
The Court of Appeal, in a unanimous
decision of the five-member panel of
justices, struck out three out of the
four issues raised by the PDP for lack
of merit before dismissing the two
appeals.
In dismissing the appeals, the
appellate court said that they were
premature and predicated on the
complaint against a ruling which the
lower tribunal had not yet delivered.
The court further stated that there
was no infringement of the
appellant’s right to fair hearing as the
motions were rightly heard by the
tribunal before ruling was adjourned
to come within the 180 days
stipulated by the Constitution.
Addressing journalists at the end of
the judgment, which lasted for about
one hour, counsel to Otti and APGA,
Mr Nwala Oracle, said that what the
Court of Appeal did was ‘’giving
effect to and affirming the sanctity of
paragraph 12 (5) of the 1st Schedule
to the Electoral Act.”
Oracle further said that the Court of
Appeal could not have gone any
other way than to confirm that the
trial tribunal has powers to take all
preliminary motions along with the
substantive petition.
“As a matter of fact, paragraph 12 (5)
is intended to reflect the sui generis
nature of election matters”, the
counsel said.
“The spirit and intendment of that
paragraph is to suppress the
mischief of delaying the Election
Petition proceeding by ensuring that
preliminary objections, whether on
jurisdiction or not, raised in the
course of the proceedings, did not
derail the determination of the merit
of a case by undue and unwarranted
delays occasioned by preliminary
objections’.
Oracle further insisted that ‘’as a
matter of fact, the tribunal is under a
duty to comply with the provisions of
paragraph 12(5), when objections
are raised against the hearing of a
petition.”
The Appeal Court, relying on the case
of Aregbesola v Omisore, in its
judgment, emphasized: “When
paragraph 53(5) was in being,
paragraph 12(5) came in on the 29th
October, 2010 like a Trojan Horse.
“Paragraph 53(5) itself came into
effect on 20th August, 2010.
Paragraph 12(5) was undoubtedly
enacted for a purpose. That purpose
was to enable election petition
tribunals to handle election petitions
without undue reliance on
technicalities.
“Although paragraph 53(5) was not
repealed, the law is that the
provisions of the later enactment
amends the earlier so far as
necessary to remove the
inconsistency between them.”
It will be recalled that the same Court
of Appeal, on September 3, 2015,
dismissed a similar suit brought to it
by counsel for Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu,
Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, against
Otti on the same basis that it lacked
merit and was a mere academic
exercise.
Otti is challenging the result of the
election in five local government
areas of Abia: Umuahia North,
Isialangwa North, Ugwunagbo,
Osisioma and Obingwa, where he
alleged massive electoral fraud by
PDP. He is urging the tribunal to
nullify Okezie’s election and to
declare him the winner of the poll.
Meanwhile, proceedings at the trial
tribunal had been adjourned to
October 14, 2015 for the adoption of
final written addresses of the parties.
News about the judgment, which
filtered into Umuahia, the state
capital, and the commercial city of
Aba, as well as Ohafia, sparked off
wild jubilation among the residents,
especially members and teeming
supporters of the party and its
governorship candidate.
A cross-section of the people
described the judgment of the Appeal
Court as ‘’cheerful news and a
positive development” for the state
and its citizenry.
Speaking in a telephone interview,
the deputy governorship candidate of
APGA, Dr. Uche Eme-Uche, expressed
gratitude to God for the judgment,
saying: “We pray that justice will
prevail at the end of the judicial
process”. Eme-Uche added: “We
need God’s intervention for Abia to
be liberated; so we shall not relent in
our prayers.’’
She noted that the judgment of the
Court of Appeal ‘’was in consonant
with the provisions of the Electoral
Act, so we expected the judgment in
our favour.’’
The state chairman of APGA, Rev.
Augustine Ehiemere, described the
judgment as ‘’a path to the ultimate
victory for the party and the suffering
masses.”
Reacting to the outcome of the
judgment in a telephone interview
from his Aba residence, Ehiemere
said, ‘’We thank God for the
judgment,” adding: “The judiciary
has, by the judgment acquitted itself
as the last hope of the common
man.”
Another chieftain of the party, Chief
Inem Nwaka, dedicated the victory to
the struggle for the emancipation of
the people of Abia.

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/09/abia-gov-election-petition-court-of-appeal-judgment-dims-pdps-hope/

booked

nah wah ooo...
the masses are suffering
two f00ls are fighting for power
at the end no progress would be
brought to the state...... its
very shameful..

I am not surprised that Otti will definitely rule Abia and also bring glory to Aba my beloved city.

#Ababoy