No Cause For Alarm Over Kano Court Ruling – Otti Assures Abians

• Says May 29 inauguration fully on course
• Lawyers slam judgment as ‘dead on arrival’

The Governor-elect of Abia State, Dr Alex Otti, has urged the Abia people not to panic over the purported nullification of his candidacy in the March 18, 2023, gubernatorial election by a Federal High Court sitting in Kano on Friday morning.

Dr Otti also assured the people that there is no cause for alarm over the development, describing it as a “kangaroo judgment” that cannot stand the test of legal scrutiny

According to Vanguard Newspaper, the Governor-elect said arrangements for his swearing-in and inauguration of a new administration in Abia State on May 29 were in full gear as planned, declaring that antics by the enemies of democracy cannot truncate the electoral will of the Abia people.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party has also dismissed the said judgment as a waste of time, just as Dr Otti’s lawyer, Chief Umeh Kalu (SAN), described the development as “dead on arrival”.

Chief Kalu, a one-time Abia state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice noted that his client was not mentioned as a party to the suit filed before the Kano court by one Ibrahim Haruna Ibrahim against the Labour Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He stated thus; “The judgment is inconsequential and dead on arrival. It is dead on arrival because Alex Otti is not a party to the suit. I have seen the judgment. You cannot make an order to anybody that is not a party before you.

“The issues they raised there are the same thing they raised at the tribunal. They said that the membership register of the Labour Party (LP) was not submitted 30 days before— and— all these issues were raised at the tribunal. Elections have come and gone; candidates accepted by INEC, elections conducted, and results declared.

“Any issue that has to do with that election, the only arena for it is the election tribunal. The issue they raised is a pre-election matter. But, even on the merit, the Kano case is dead on arrival. You cannot shave anybody’s head in his absence. Alex Otti’s name was not mentioned in that judgment even though I think he is the target.”

Also reacting to the development, a human rights lawyer, Festus Ogun noted that no court can nullify the candidacy of a person duly elected into office on the ground that he was not validly nominated.

Ogun said; “No court can nullify the candidacy of a person duly elected on the ground that he was not validly nominated, after the election. Once an election has been conducted, the issue of nomination pending in any court becomes academic and any order arising therefrom will be in vain.

“Should you fail to successfully challenge the nomination of a candidate before the conduct of an election, it becomes “Otilo” (Gone), otiose (serving no practical purpose or result), and academic after the conduct of the election. In fact, save for qualification issues, you cannot raise it at the Tribunal.