Governor Okezie Victor Ikpeazu of Abia State, on Saturday, declared that despite the ruling of the Court of Appeal, Owerri Division, he remains the governor of the South-East state.
In a special broadcast, he said: “I have just been informed that the Court of Appeal sitting at Owerri has nullified my victory as the duly-elected Governor of Abia State and ordered that one of my opponents at the election, Dr. Alex Otti should be sworn in as the winner of the election.
“As of this moment, I have not received the full briefing on the reason for the decision of the Court of Appeal but my lawyers are still at the court waiting to obtain a copy of the judgement for further studying and it is past 7pm. The next four days are public holidays and the timing of the judgement means that we are losing valuable days to study the judgement and file our Appeal.
“I wish to state at this point that preliminary reports available to me indicate that the premise upon which the decision of the Court of Appeal was arrived at is at best tenuous.
“That being said, I wish to express my utmost confidence in the ability of the Justices of the Supreme Court to correct the anomaly at the Court of Appeal and uphold my victory as had been earlier done by the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia.
“In the interim, while I have instructed my lawyers to take steps to file an immediate Appeal at the Supreme Court, I wish to assure all Abians that all is well. I remain the Governor of Abia State until the Supreme Court reaffirms my mandate which was freely given to me by the good people of Abia State during the elections.
“I call on security agencies to maintain the peace in Abia State and ensure that people go about their legitimate businesses without fear of disruption from any quarters. I also call on our supporters to remain calm in the face of provocation.
“I remain supremely confident that at the end of the day, victory shall be ours. I thank you all for listening and wish you a prosperous 2016”.
The court had earlier declared Dr Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) the winner of the April 11 and April 25 supplementary elections in the South-East state .
The five-member panel, headed by Justice Oyebisi Omoleye, annulled the elections on the grounds of substantial non-compliance to the electoral law.
Delivering judgement in an appeal filed by Otti, the court said that the APGA candidate scored 164, 444 valid votes to defeat Ikpeazu who scored 114, 444 votes.
The court declared that Otti was the winner of the April 11 and April 25 supplementary elections in Abia.
Omoleye said that the cancellation of the elections held in three LGAs of Obingwa, Osisioma Ngwa and Isiala Ngwa by the returning officers after the results were uploaded to INEC was wrong.
“In the Electoral Act, the Returning Officer has the right to only declare results of elections and not to cancel elections.
“This panel discovered that the earlier results uploaded to INEC headquarters correspond with the correct valid registered voters in the three LGAs, while that awarded to the respondent shows over voting and therefore null and void.’’
Omoleye had while reviewing preliminary objections and issues raised by both parties, struck out the preliminary objections by Ikpeazu’s counsel to the effect that the appeal lacked merit.
She also turned down the objection raised by the PDP that the members of the panel were wrongfully constituted and affirmed the arguments of Otti’s counsel.
The appellate court maintained that the lower tribunal erred by not handling all the issues raised before it on their merit.
“It was wrong for the court below to insist that because the appellant failed to appear in person, his matter will not be given due attention.
“For not appearing in person, the first appellant did not abandon his case,’’ she said.
After nullifying the election, the court insisted that there was no need to call for re-run because the results of the April 11 and 25 polls clearly present Otti as the genuine winner of the exercise.
The court, therefore, directed INEC to issue Certificate of Return to Otti and swear him in as winner of the Abia Governorship election.
In his reaction to the judgement, Mr Oracle Nwali, a lawyer in Otti’s legal team, described the victory as “an end of the year gift to APGA,’’ saying Otti would not disappoint Abia people.
On his part, Mr Charles Esonu, the PDP scribe in Abia, said that party and its candidate would study the judgement and decide on the next line of action.
Meanwhile, Ikpeazu has presented a N96.7billion budget for 2016 to the House of Assembly for approval.
Speaking in Umuahia on Thursday during the budget presentation, Ikpeazu said that the budget was 22.8 per cent less than the 2015 budget of N102.4 billion.
The governor said that the 2016 budget was anchored on the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).
“Our capital expenditure is proposed to be N37.8 billion while the recurrent expenditure will be N58.9bn,” the governor said.
Ikpeazu said that “in meeting the demands of the budget, we do not desire to compound the problems of the good people of Abia”.
He said that state government would apply prudent utilisation of available resources to achieve economic development, environmental sustainability, social inclusion and quality governance.
The governor said that the state government would not rely solely on federal allocation but had determined to increase its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Ikpeazu said that the government was poised to increase its IGR by exploring the benefits of public-private partnership, creation of conducive environment for increased commercial activities and foreign investment.
Receiving the budget, the Speaker, Chief Martins Azubuike, told the governor that the house would give accelerated consideration to the bill.
