Otti, Aguocha, Ogah win court challenges

…kick out Ahiwe, Cinedum Orji, Onyejeocha 

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia 

 In a streak of legal victories for the Labour Party (LP) in Abia State, Governor Alex Otti has brushed aside determined efforts by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its 2023 guber candidate, Sir Okey Ahiwe, to invalidate his nomination while Chief Obi Aguocha has rested the ambition of former Abia State House of Assembly Speaker, Rt. Hon. Chinedum Orji, to upgrade to the Green Chambers of the National Assembly, just as Hon. Amobi Ogah has ended the ambition of the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, to return to the House of Representatives for a record fifth term.

The legal victories began on Thursday, November 2, 2023, when the Supreme Court thwarted a surreptitious move by the PDP and Ahiwe, seeking to invalidated Otti’s nomination by Labour Party for the 2023 governorship election in Abia State, a move, if it had succeeded in removing Governor Otti from office, would have undermined the verdict of Abia people at the poll.

 Ahiwe, who lost the March 18, 2023 governorship election won by Labour Party’s Dr. Alex Otti, had filed a suit on October 30, 2023, seeking to be joined as an interested party in the controversial Federal High Court, Kano, judgment now discarded by the Appeal Court, Kano.

The Supreme Court described Ahiwe’s application as a bubble and agreed with the lawyers to Dr. Otti that Ahiwe had slept over his right, if any. The apex court then dismissed the appeal and awarded a cost of N500, 000 against Ahiwe, a judgment described by those present in court as a show of shame for Ahiwe and the PDP.

 The PDP and Ahiwe had through a proxy filed a case at the Kano lower court, where they lured the court to give them judgment on the false allegation that the Labour Party did not submit the register of its members to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), consequently nullifying the candidacy of LP members in the general election. 

 The Appeal Court, in throwing out the judgment of the Federal High Court, described it as reckless, fraudulent and a legal misadventure. 

 Recall that Dr. Alex Otti was not initially joined in the suit at the Federal High Court, Kano, but he joined at the appeal stage and his appeal was successful. A portion of the Judgment of the court of appeal reads as follows:

“The above motion was supported  by a 9-paragraph affidavit which the 2nd Respondent countered as stated above. ‘That shows the level of intrigues and apparent foul play  by mischief makers (including some lawyers, unfortunately)  to ridicule the court, and attain a fraudulent objective, in my opinion. The role of the 1st Respondent and counsel who appeared for the purported Labour Party at the lower court is suspect. I think the Nigerian Bar Association and the Police have a duty to investigate the claims of conspiracy/collusion or connivance by the 1st Respondent and the counsel named in the counter affidavit of the 2nd Respondent to establish apparent conflicting roles of counsel in this case, with a view to  saving the law practice and to bring  sanity and decorum to the judicial service in Nigeria, and respect to the  Court process. It is so ordered.” 

 Even against the background of this weighty judgment of the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, Ahiwe, with the PDP, Abia State, decided to pursue an appeal to the Supreme Court, where he sought to be joined to challenge the judgment of the court seeking to argue  that Dr. Alex Otti was not a member of the Labour Party.

The LP’s winning streak continued on Friday with the Appeal Court affirming the poll victory of Hon. Obi Aguocha over Chinedum Orji sponsored by PDP for the Ikwuano/Umuahia North/Umuahia South Federal Constituency on February 25, 2023.

The Appeal Court upheld the judgement of the National Assembly Election Petition which sat in Umuahia.

The tribunal had held that the nomination of a candidate was the internal affair of a political party, adding the former Abia Speaker failed to prove his allegation of electoral malpractices by LP and its candidate during the election and consequently dismissed Chinedum’s petition for lack of merit.

 Though well-meaning sons of Ibeku and Ohuhu clans had appealed to Rt. Hon. Orji not to appeal the tribunal ruling but to join hands with his brother, Aguocha, to work for the progress and development of the federal constituency, the ex-Speaker refused to heed such calls and filed an appeal.

 The Appeal Court, in its judgement which effectively sealed Rt. Hon. Orji’s hope of moving up to the House of Representatives, upheld the lower tribuna’s verdict.

 True to his prediction, Hon. Amobi Ogah, also of LP, regained his seat in the Green Chambers temporarily handed to Onyejeocha by the lower tribunal which held the the lawmaker was not properly nominated by his party.

 The tribunal had ordered INEC to immediately issue a Certificate of Return to Onyejeocha and withdraw the one earlier given to Ogah.

 But the Appeal Court, also on Friday, quashed the tribunal’s ruling and declared that Ogah was duly nominated for the Isuikwuato/Umunmeochi Federal Constituency election.

 Recall that the NASS tribunals in Abia sacked four LP House of Representatives members

 With Ogah’s recovery of his mandate, hopes are high that the remaining three would equally be recovered by LP which recorded overwhelming victories in the 2023 general election in Abia, thereby altering the political colouration of God’s Own State.