Politics
APGA joins Abia drama, demands for governorship
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has joined the drama playing out in Abia State which has thrown up two governors in the state.
The party says that though the court judgment nullifying the election of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu was right, it erred by ordering that Mr Uche Ogah should be sworn in as governor.
It said, rather, its candidate in the 2015 elections, Dr. Alex Otti, should have been declared the duly elected governor of Abia State.
A federal High Court sitting in Abuja, had ordered the INEC to issue a certificate of return to Ogah, and Ikpeazu to vacate his office as governor with immediate effect.
But Ikpeazu had filed an appeal against the said judgment. The legal battle is yet to settle, with both men laying claim to the Government House.
APGA however, APGA says Ikpeazu having been disqualified by the court, the mantle should not have fallen on Ogah, who did not take part in the actual election.
Read also: Community leaders, village heads at war over Ogah, Ikpeazu
The party in a press statement signed by its chairman in the state, Rev. Augustine Ehiemere, said: “We humbly disagree with the consequential order by the court which directed for the swearing in of Dr. Uche Ogah as the governor. This order, which we consider as a huge error, is not only unacceptable to APGA, but untenable in Nigeria’s 2010 Electoral Act as amended, which forbids any person that did not take part in all the stages of an election from being declared winner.”
The party therefore demanded, that “the appellate court, while upholding the Ikpeazu guilty verdict, should correct this huge error by issuing the right order, which is to declare the candidate that scored the highest lawful votes, Dr Alex Otti (APGA) as the governor.”
Otti is the fourth contender to the position besides Ikpeazu, Ogah and Friday Nwosu, who is also in court seeking to be declared as governor of Abia State under the platform of the PDP.
Nwosu, who came third in the PDP primary poll, said Ogah should not be sworn-in as governor because he rejected the result of the primary poll, based on allegations of irregularities.
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