Breaking: Court sacks Labour Party's Alex Otti as Abia governor-elect

A Federal High Court sitting in Kano State has canceled the candidature of the Abia State Governor-elect, Dr Alex Otti.

Telescope.ng gathered that the court presided over by Justice M N Yunusa also nullified the candidature of all Labour Party flagbearers in Abia and Kano states.

Yunusa ruled that their emergence was not in compliance with the 2022 Electoral Act provisions.

The judge gave the ruling on the Suit No FHC/KN/CS/107/2023 filed by one Mr Ibrahim Haruna Ibrahim against the Labour Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The judge held: “The party that has not complied with the provisions of the electoral act cannot be said to have candidate in an election and cannot be declared winner of an election; this being so, the votes credited to the 1st defendant is a wasted vote.”

According to him, the failure of the Labour Party to submit its membership register to the INEC within 30 days before their primaries renders the process invalid.

Reacting to the court’s judgement, Otti urged Abians not to panic over his purported sack by a Federal High Court in Kano, saying there is no cause for alarm over the kangaroo judgement.

Otti who spoke with Vanguard in Abia, said arrangements for his swearing- in on May 29 were on full gear as planned, declaring that the antics of the enemies of democracy cannot truncate the will of Abians.

This is as the Labour Party has dismissed the said judgment as a waste of time.