This is as the Labour Party has dismissed the said judgment as “a complete waste of time.”
Abia Governor-elect, Dr Alex Otti has said he's not bothered by a ruling of a Federal High Court in Kano nullifying his candidature.
According to him, 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 complete waste of time.”
Otti who spoke through his Media Aide, Ferdinand Ekeoma, said the “Kano court judgement does not hold water and stands on nothing”.
“It has no basis, and nobody should bother about it. If they had a case why didn’t they file it in Abia?
“Even the one they filed in Kano, they intentionally did not want to join us. The judge knows that, and did not pass any verdict on us because Otti was not joined.”
The Governor-elect explained that similar cases had already been filed against two Labour Party House of Representatives candidates in Abia but were all dismissed even by the Supreme Court.
“The court had ruled on similar suit before the election and dismissed it. Similar suit was filled against two of our Representative candidates – Obi Aguocha, and Ginger Onwusibe which was abjudicated up to the Supreme Court.
“So, when they could not file this suit again in Abia, they sneaked to Kano, and somebody may have deceived or defrauded them.
“It’s just a waste of time. PDP had also brought such matter against Peter Obi and the court ruled that it had no locus in it.
“The qualifications for one to stand election for governor or president have already been clearly stated in the Constitution of Nigeria. Non submission of party register to INEC cannot override the constitution of the country.
“So, those behind this suit know that similar matter had been abjudicated upon before. That’s why they didn’t come back to file it in Abia.
“They intentionally didn’t want to join us thinking they could get a black market judgement. But the Judge knew the consequences, and that is why he dodged it.
“They can look for another court to join us, and it’s only when they serve us that we can prove to them that similar suit had been dismissed before”.
Otti who said that the ruling could not stand, urged Abians not to lose sleep over it as he is busy with activities lined up for his Inauguration.
“There is no cause for alarm. My inauguration on May 29 is going on as scheduled. Abians should not bother”.
Similarly, the Chairman of Labour Party in the state, Ceekay Igara, dismissed the judgement as of no consequence.
Igbara who spoke with Vanguard said the party was not served in the suit, wondering why any litigant would sue somebody without serving the respondent with any summons.
Igbara, however, said that the legal team of the party had taken necessary steps to deal with the matter.
He accused the Apapa-le faction of Labour Party, of conniving with enemies of democracy to destroy the party.
“It’s Apapa and his sponsors that want to destroy labour party. They are moving from state to state trying to cause confusion in the state but they have failed woefully. We aren’t losing sleep over them”.