Alex Otti, Dan Onyeonagu are busy bodies in Abia matter – Appeal Court

– The Court of Appeal has dismissed the applications filed by Alex Otti of All progressives Grand Alliance Alex Otti and Dan Onyeonagu of KOWA party

– The court ruled that the applications lacked merit because the applicants had no business in the matter before it

– The court further described the applicants as busy bodies and meddlesome interlopers in the matter

Alex Otti, gubernatorial candidate for Abia state All progressives Grand Alliance

The applications to join the Abia state governorship tussle filed by the Abia state governorship candidates of the All progressives Grand Alliance Alex Otti and Dan Onyeonagu of KOWA party have been struck out by the Abuja division of the Appeal Court.

On Friday, August 5, Justice Abubakar Yahaya in a unanimous ruling held that the two applicants failed to establish their interest in the internal crisis rocking the Poeples Democratic Party (PDP).

Yahaya said that the subject of argument between Samson Ogah and the present governor of the state Okezie Ikpeazu was the PDP primary election and not the state’s general election.

The judge also said that Otti and Onyeonagu are members of different political parties other than the PDP.

He also said that the applicant have failed to sway the court to exercise its discretion in their favour or transmit the proceedings of the trial court – the Federal High Court to the Court of Appeal.

Yahaya further said that if allowed to join the suit, the applicants will only alter the nature of the dispute from intra-party affair to an inter-party one.

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The court also held that the documents placed before it showed that the applicants have not been deprived of anything it deserves but that the applicants are only meddlesome interlopers and busy body in the matter.

Yahaya said: “Let me make it clear that the issue at the Federal High Court which gave birth to the pending appeal here, was the primary election of the PDP conducted on December 8, 2014 in which Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu emerged winner and Samson Ogah came second.”

“The respondent here (Ogah), based on information made available to him after the primary election, approached the Federal High Court to complain that the winner of the primary election was not qualified to be nominated as a candidate by PDP on the account of the submission of alleged false ‎tax clearance to obtain the PDP nomination and that he (Ogah) sought to be declared the winner of the said primary having scored the second majority lawful votes,” Yahaya said.

“From the case of the plaintiff, the challenge was the participation of Ikpeazu in the primary election and his subsequent nomination, the entire gamut of his suit, for the purpose of clarity, was the participation of another aspirant in the primary election. In other words, it is a case of an aspirant challenging the participation of another aspirant at a primary election of their political party.

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“From the way the case of the plaintiff was coughed, I do not see how the interest of the applicants can come in the primary election of another party except if they want the dispute to metamorphose into inter party dispute,” the judge added.

He further ruled that the matter be dismissed for lack of merit while the applicants were ordered to pay the three respondents N50,000 each.

Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court on June 27, nullified the election that brought Ikpeazu into power for falsification of tax clearance.

Abang in his ruling also ordered the electoral body, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue a certificate of return to Ogah.

Since Abang’s ruling, various crisis have rocked the state with various applications from Ikpeazu countering Abang’s ruling.

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