Nemesis appears to have finally overtaken Dr. Alex Otti, the ill fated governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA in the 2015 governorship election in Abia.
Information reaching SEEN reveals that Otti’s American trip touted as the biggest fund raising spree in the history of election petition in Nigeria flopped woefully as would be sponsors distanced themselves from Otti’s desperate cause.
Signs that all was not well in Otti’s camp and that he is bedevilled with serious cash crunch emerged when Otti allegedly placed in the market his 50 bedroom hotel in Lagos to seriously meet mounting election petition bill but unfortunately serious buyers were not forth coming and those who showed interest offered ridiculous price once they get to know the identity of the owner of the property believing that his dire need of cash will force him to sell.
Having failed to immediately turn his hotel into liquid cash, Dr. Otti turned to personal effects. He quickly ordered the recalled of his campaign buses and sundries and allegedly auctioned them off. The move proved to have little effect on the bill and fees of his coterie of Senior Advocates and lawyers and other behind the scene expenses.
It was at this juncture that one Kalu Okpo Kalu, former banker who was Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu’s point man in the establishment and running of his banks in the Gambia and other West African countries stepped in and conceived the bright idea of going to America to tap into the dream and raise massive funds to enable them cross the finish line.
But like the architectural building plans it turned out that the finished building doesn’t look exactly as it appeared on the plan. Most of the anticipated and would be patrons and supporters cunningly backed out with one excuse or the other.
A younger brother of a former top police officer in the country who hails from Bende LGA told Otti to forget 2015 and instead prepare for 2019 reasoning that with the experience he has garnered from his current experiment he would do better in future attempts.
A lady from Ohafia who is married to a top PDP stalwart and Ikpeazu operative who spoke to SEEN said it was stupid and unthinkable to approach her for funds when they knew the role and position her husband occupies in the scheme of things in the Ikpeazu hierarchy ‘ do they want me to work against my husband’s interest’
Chief Chris Egbelefu Ubani, an Ntigha born politician who had wanted to vie under APGA in the last election told SEEN ” … Do they realised that I am an Ngwa man, they took the governor, they took the deputy though it was our right to produce the governor, now they want an Ngwa man to go against the interest of his people, they want me to join them in oppressing my own people, well this is America not Nigeria where you people make money any how, here we spent our money even before we make them”
SEEN learnt that the story was similar wherever Otti and his fundraising team went and they ended up spending more money than they raised.
A junior lawyer in Dr. Otti’s legal team who vented out his frustration to a colleague and confidant of his queried the impact of the multitudes of SAN as it created major headache for the team of two many captains manning a single ship.
” we didn’t do enough chamber sessions with our witnesses, the petition itself was highly flawed, the handling was something else. For goodness sake how can you prove a governorship petition with just twenty witnesses” he lamented.
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SEEN investigation reveals that the frustrations of Otti’s lawyer may not be far fetched. Proving election petition in Nigeria is an uphill task, doing so under the present dispensation (180 days timeframe) is a near impossible feat which may have account for the fact that no governorship election in the country has been upturn since 2011 when it came into effect.
“To succeed, a petition must be extremely focused, articulate and meticulously set out his proof in line with his case. I doubt if Dr. Alex Otti and his team appreciated these facts” said Orji Okonkwo Esobe, a Lagos based constitutional lawyer who reviewed the proceedings at the Abia Governorship Election Petition Tribunal for SEEN.
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” Otti complained that election did not hold in some LGA. The evidence ought to be adduced at polling unit level were elections ought to hold through polling units agents rather he called LGA collating agents and under cross-examinations they admitted that they never visited any polling unit and that their evidence was made up of reports from their polling unit agents. Hearsay evidence and it won’t be relied upon by the Tribunal” Esobe concluded.
Perhaps, the last straw that broke the camels back and torn and littered Otti’s petition all over the tribunal ground may be his refusal to take the witness stand. While a Respondent may choose not to personally defend an election petition, it’s unheard off for a petitioner not take the witness stand.
SEEN finding shows that Otti’s dread and refusal to take the witness box arose out of the experience and treatment meted out to “Barrister” Ahamdi Nweke, Otti’s state collating agent when he took the witness box. The Respondents threw decorum to the wind pounced on him and forced him to admit in open Court that he never read Law which some argued that that wasn’t the issue before the Tribunal but it served its purpose.
Otti was petrified of entering the witness box and for good reasons too for he knew that the Respondents would tore him to shreds and would wash his dirty linens in public. The issues surrounding his paternity and place of origin and his much touted stewardship in the banking industry would have been fair game. He wouldn’t take the risk.
When Otti’s legal team realised the precarious state of their case occasioned by his refusal to testify in his own case and they attempted to do damage control with the motion to reopen their case and allow him to testify which was out rightly rejected by the Tribunal but ended up highlighting the flaws in their case.
And to add insults to injury, Otti and his team were unable to tender the INEC inspection report Ordered by the Tribunal. ” what then is Otti’s case built on” James Nweke a PDP stalwart gloated.
As if Otti’s bad day in the office would never end, the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division in Ambode Vs. Agbaje held that a faulty or non use of a card reader cannot be a ground for Invalidating an election. “Put simply, a petitioner cannot project the non-presence or improper use of smart card reader as a ground for questioning an election, it does not qualify as one” the Court ruled.
Not done yet, the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division last Friday Ordered the Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal in Peterside Vs. Wike, to deliver her ruling without further delay on the motion by the Respondents seeking amongst other reliefs the striking out of the grounds in the petition questioning the election on the non-use of card readers in the governorship election. This is also the hallmark of Otti’s petition which is that card readers were not use for accreditation of voters in Obingwa, Osisioma and Isialangwa Local Government Areas. A dire fate awaits the petition said Barrister David Otuonye of the Election Petition Monitoring Group, Abuja.
” with a shambolic hearsay oral evidence, the petitioner refusing to testify, absence of INEC inspection report and soon to be expunged card reader evidence/grounds, on what will the petition succeed on” Otuonye quip.
SEEN investigation stumbled on bewildering development. While the low and middle level Otti!s supporters are still hallucinating on Otti’s victory, panic has set in on the top echelon as covert and clandestine moves are on to cross over to the winning side.
Precisely, during the recent 70th birthday celebration of Chief Ojo Maduekwe, a top PDP stalwart and Nigerian Ambassador to Canada at his country home in Ohafia, Abia State, the leadership of the group derogatorily called “Association of Retired Failed Bankers”, a group of former banker who seeks to return to prominence through an Otti victory and responsible for mobilising resources for Otti within the Bende axis met and held talks with Governor Okezie Ikpeazu under the mediatory role of Chief Maduekwe. They pledged support and praised the governor for his developmental strides while negotiating a soft landing for themselves.
If Dr. Alex Otti’s position is this precarious how come most of his supporters are still up beat and expectant of victory.
Amadi Onwuka Dr. Ikpeazu’s youth coordinator in Itumbuzo, Bende LGA who attended Tribunal sittings regularly has this to say ” Remember the story of the six blind men on a voyage of discovery to find out the true nature of an elephant. After their expedition each went their way convinced his finding truly represent the image of the elephant, off course they all had different and divergent view of the elephant but all held tenaciously and celebrated their individual positions as the correct view”
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Maybe the above best represent the nature of election petitions in Nigeria where the different parties leaves the tribunal hall daily celebrating their imaginary victories. Nowhere was it more apt than the ongoing Abla State governorship election petition.
As the curtain draws down on Dr. Alex Otti’s botched gubernatorial ambition, Chief Alum Otis, APGA Ohafia LGA boss and a vociferous critic of Otti’s misadventure in APGA thundered ”
Those who would reap where they did not sow will eventually sow where they will not reap, it’s natural justice.”
Source: IGTV
