Court nullifies Alex Otti’s candidacy — but declines to cancel his election as Abia governor

A federal high court in Kano has nullified the candidature of Alex Otti, governor-elect of Abia, and other candidates of the Labour Party (LP) in Abia and Kano.

Mohammed Yunusa, the presiding judge, ruled that the LP did not comply with provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act.

The judge gave the ruling on Thursday in a suit filed by Ibrahim Haruna Ibrahim against the LP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The judge held that LP did not submit the register of its members in the 36 states of the federation to INEC in compliance with the electoral act.

He said the votes cast for all the candidates of the LP in Kano and Abia states are therefore “wasted”.

The judge however refused to order INEC to withdraw Otti’s certificate of return.

He said since the candidates that participated in the Abia election are not parties before the court, he lacks the jurisdiction to make an order on the issuance of certificate of return.

The judge said the affected parties are at liberty to “seek the said redress in the appropriate division of the court”.

“That the failure of the 1st Defendant (Labour Party) to submit its register of members in Kano state and Abia state is in crass breach of the provisions of section 77(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022 and the purported primary elections of the 1st defendant is invalid, null and void and of no effect,” the judge said.

“That the fundamentally flawed primary elections of the 1st defendant (Labour party) as a result of failure to comply with the mandatory provisions of section 77(2) and (3) cannot produce a qualified candidate that participated in the General Elections as held on the 25th of February, 2023 and 18th of march, 2023 respectively for all the elective positions in Kano state and Abia state.

“That the void Primary Elections of the 1 Defendant cannot produce eligible candidates to be sponsored by the 1 Defendant in the General Election and the participation of the candidates of the 1st Defendant in the election in Kano State and Abia State is of no moment and waste of time.

“That the votes cast for all the candidates of the 1st defendant in Kano state and Abia state in the general elections of 2023 are wasted votes.”

On March 22, INEC declared Otti as the winner of the governorship poll in Abia state.

He polled 175,467 to defeat Okey Ahiwe, his closest rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 88,529 votes.

Editor’s note: This report has been corrected to reflect the judge’s refusal to ask INEC to withdraw Otti’s certificate of return.