It was a New Year eve of mixed fortunes in Abia and Taraba government houses as the Court of Appeal delivered judgment on the governorship election in the two states.
Sitting in Owerri, Imo State, the Court of Appeal nullified the election of Okezie Ikpeazu as governor of Abia State.
It declared Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) winner of the April 11 governorship election and ordered his swearing in.
The court faulted the earlier judgment of the Abia Election Petition Tribunal, which upheld the election of Mr. Ikpeazu.
It also faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for declaring Ikpeazu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the election in the first place.
Mr. Otti, a banker turned politician, had proceeded to the Court of Appeal after the Abia tribunal gave its judgment on November 3, saying the PDP validly won the election.
Earlier in the day, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja reversed the judgement of the Taraba State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sacked Governor Darius Ishaku of the PDP.
In a unanimous judgment, the appellate court panel headed by Justice Abdul Aboky, held that the tribunal acted outside its jurisdiction when it invalidated Ishaku’s election on the premise that he was not validly nominated by the PDP.
The appellate court maintained that the issue of nomination of a candidate by a political party “is clearly a pre-election matter which no tribunal has the jurisdiction to entertain”.
It stressed that neither the APC, nor its governorship candidate, Senator Aisha Jumai Alhassan, had the locus standi to query the outcome of the governorship primary election of the PDP.
The court, therefore halted the march of Alhassan, popularly known as Mama Taraba, towards becoming Nigeria’s first elected female state governor.
