Abia State Election Tribunal Update Court Adjourns Date Again

The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia has adjourned to July 10 and 13 for confirmation and pre-hearing in the petition filed by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance in Abia, Dr. Alex Otti.

It will be recalled that Otti filed a petition, urging the tribunal to nullify the election of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu as governor and declare him the rightful winner of the election.

Tribunal Chairman, Hon. Justice Usman Bwala, while adjourning sitting on Thursday, said that it was expected that all the processes would have been served and replies also filed by all the parties in the matter.
Before the adjournment, Bwala said that the litigants had up to the end of Thursday to file all their motions, saying that no other motions would be acceptable thereafter.

Meanwhile, Counsel to Otti, Chief Awa Kalu (SAN), has withdrawn a petition he filed on June 25, seeking an order of the tribunal to enable Otti to inspect all the documents used in the general and supplementary governorship polls.

In an interview with newsmen at the end of Thursday’s sitting, Kalu explained that the motion was withdrawn, following the filing of a fresh motion.

He explained that the petitioner was facing some hiccups in the inspection of materials as ordered by the tribunal. He said that the fresh motion was to urge the tribunal to remove the encumbrances in the inspection process.