The Supreme Court of Nigeria has come very hard on the Abia PDP candidate in the 2023 election, Chief Okey Ambrose Ahiwe over an application brought by him, his party the PDP and four others seeking to remove the duly elected Governor of Abia state, Dr. Alex Otti.
Ahiwe had on the 30th of October, 2023 filed a bizarre application at the Supreme Court seeking to join (as an interested party) in the very controversial appeal arising from the Federal High Court in Kano, where the PDP’s proxy had sought to nullify the election of Dr. Alex Otti OFR on the eve of his inauguration for alleged non submission of the Labour Party (LP) Register to INEC and where they lured the court to issue a judgment (within a week) that has now been described by the court of appeal Kano Division as reckless, fraudulent and a legal misadventure.
It will be recalled that Dr. Alex Otti was not initially joined in the suit at the Federal High Court, Kano, but he joined at the appeal stage and his appeal was successful. A portion of the Judgment of the court of appeal reads as follows:
‘The above motion was supported by a 9-paragraph affidavit which the 2nd Respondent countered as stated above. “That shows the level of intrigues and apparent foul play by mischief makers (including some lawyers, unfortunately) to ridicule the court , and attain a fraudulent objective. In my opinion, the role of the 1st Respondent and counsel who appeared for the purported labour Party at the lower court is suspect. I think the Nigerian Bar Association and the Police have a duty to investigate the claims of conspiracy /collusion or connivance by the 1st Respondent and the counsel named in the counter affidavit of the 2nd. Respondent to establish apparent conflicting roles of counsel in this case, with a view to saving the law practice and to bring sanity and decorum to the judicial service in Nigeria, and respect to the Court process . It is so ordered”.
In spite of this weighty judgment of the court of appeal of Nigeria, Chief Okey Ahiwe and the PDP Abia State decided to pursue an appeal to the Supreme Court today where he sought to be joined to challenge the judgment of the court seeking to argue that Dr. Alex Otti OFR was not a member of the Labour Party.
Irked by this action, the Supreme court described their application as a trap and agreed with the lawyers to Governor Alex Otti that Ahiwe had slept over his right, if any. The Supreme Court then dismissed the appeal and awarded a cost of N.5million each against Ahiwe and the five other.
Following this development, Ahiwe and PDP’s representatives hirriedly stormed out of the court room in anger and were seen hanging outside the court premises discussing the issue and looking shocked and bewildered.
Ferdinand Ekeoma
02-11-2023.
