Abia State News Special Report
IKPEAZU VERSUS OTTI: PARTY'S PRESENT, ADOPT THEIR WRITTEN ADDRESSES BEFORE TRIBUNAL
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Afnews Editor
Aug 29, 2019
The ongoing suit at the Tribunal
filed by the All Progressives Grand Alliance gubernatorial candidate Dr. Alex
Otti which seeks to nullify the victory of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu ended today
with both party's presenting and adopting their written addresses before the
tribunal.
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Making their last submissions
during the court proceedings, lead counsel to the petitioner Chief Lateef
Fagbemi [SAN] prayed the court to nullify the said gubernatorial election which
was conducted on the 9th day of March 2019, because of none
compliance with the electoral act and the electoral guidelines in the conduct
of the election.
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Chief Fagbemi posited that
there's a new regime regarding voting, stating that in the current electoral
guideline it states that a voter must be duly certified by electoral officers
before voting, adding that in the election, such was not followed at all.
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Fagbemi explained that the
petitioner alleged that his votes were wrongly rejected and that in some
instances, the use of card reader machine was disregarded as well as high level
of malpractices during the election.
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He stated that he was glad that
INEC has never disputed the fact that some aspects of the election was marred
by irregularities and none compliance with the rule regarding the conduct of
election.
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On his part, lead counsel to the
first respondent Chief Wole Olanipekun [SAN] urged the tribunal to dismiss the
petition because the petitioner have no confidence in their case regarding the
use of card reader in the election.
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Chief Olanipekun explained that
in paragraph 5.30 of their petition it was misleading statutorily and
judiciary, pointing out that the issue of card reader was never an issue and
that one recurring decimal in the conduct of election since 1999 has never
changed.
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Counsel to the third respondent,
Chief Onyechi Ikpeazu [SAN] he said that the case was of the petitioner was
done on a wrong premise, noting that voting is not accreditation and that
accreditation is not voting, arguing that out of the 788 polling units, the
petitioner had only 65 polling unit agents.
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The presiding judge while ruling on the matter thanked both party's for their wonderful presentation and urged them to remain calm till the day both parties will be communicated to on the date for the judgment
