The All Progressives Congress in Abia State and its Governorship candidate in the March 18 Governorship poll, High Chief Ikechi Emenike, have kicked against the Saturday verdict of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the election of Dr Alex Otti of the Labour Party.
Emenike and Abia APC on Sunday said they would go to the apex court “in search of justice,” on the matter.
The Chairman of the party, Dr. Kingsley Ononogbu in a statement, said “The party’s Governorship Appeal: High Chief Ikechi Emenike vs. INEC & 6ors had become another victim of the Nigeria judicial abracadabra.”
Ononugbo added: “The court of appeal Lagos division dismissed our Appeal against the unconstitutional declaration of Alex Otti as the governor of Abia State in the March 18 General Election.” He said APC and Ikechi’s team of lawyers became apprehensive when 88 the night before the ruling news started flying that judgment would be delivered the following day.
“When our Lead counsel, Tochukwu Maduka, SAN, contacted the deputy registrar, court of Appeal Lagos, he apologized and sent a hearing notice of the day’s sitting at about 99 am Unfortunately, democracy and the rule of law have been reduced to this pitiable level in our dear country. In this circumstance, we will not even relent.
“We urge our members to keep calm as we are prepared to take steps and approach the Apex court in the land for a final review of this obvious truncation of justice for curious reasons. We are aware that the journey to freedom has never been an easy one. We urge everyone to continue to remember our leader, High Chief Ikechi Emenike, – the last man standing in our prayers.”
Also, a lawyer, Mr Nnamdi Adiele, who claimed he was in the Lagos division of the Court of Appeal to witness the judgment, said: “Justice Habeeb Adewale Abiru abandoned the law, shunned justice and embarked on a voyage of political fallacies and personal barb.”
Adiele expressed worries about “the fate of Nigeria if clear constitutional provisions are so regrettably treated.”
Another lawyer, Ken Dike, also wondered why qualification criteria would be used to remove the Governors of Plateau and Kano states as well as the Abia Central Senator among others, but ignored in the case of Otti, and “Party waiver will be made to be superior to both the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral Act.”
According to him, these “strange pronouncements need to be tested at the Supreme Court.”
