Abia’s Governor-elect, Otti Addresses Supporters After Candidacy Nullification by Kano Court

Abia State Governor-elect, Dr Alex Otti has advised the state residents to keep calm on his alleged dismissal by a Federal High Court sitting in Kano State.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that Otti’s candidacy and that of other Labour Party members in Abia and Kano states were nullified by a judge due to non-compliance with the provisions of the 2022 electoral act.

The judge ruled that the party’s failure to submit its membership register to the INEC within 30 days before their primaries made the process null and void.

Otti responded to the ruling by saying that preparations for his inauguration on May 29 are proceeding as planned.

He mentioned that the actions of those opposed to democracy would not prevent the people of Abia from having their way.

The governor-elect who spoke through his media aide, Ferdinand Ekeoma, with Vanguard was quoted as saying that the Kano court’s judgment holds no water and stands on nothing.

“It has no basis, and nobody should bother about it. If they had a case why didn’t they file it in Abia?

“Even the one they filed in Kano, they intentionally did not want to join us. The judge knows that, and did not pass any verdict on us because Otti was not joined.”

Otti further explained that similar cases had already been filed against two Labour Party House of Representatives candidates in Abia but were all dismissed even by the Supreme Court.

“The court had ruled on a similar suit before the election and dismissed it.

A similar suit was filed against two of our Representative candidates – Obi Aguocha, and Ginger Onwusibe which was abjudicated up to the Supreme Court.