Okezie Victory Ikpeazu V. Alex Otti & Ors (2015)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

SAMUEL CHUKWUDUMEBI OSEJI, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

Election into the office of the Governor of Abia State was conducted on the 11th and 25th April 2015 by the Independent National Electoral Commission. At the conclusion thereof, the Appellant herein (OKEZIE VICTOR IKPEAZU) was declared winner and returned as elected.

The 2nd Respondent herein All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) was one of the political parties which participated in the said election and the 2nd Respondent was its candidate.

Dissatisfied with the declaration and return of the Appellant as the winner of the Election, the 1st and 2nd Respondents filed a Petition dated 14th May, 2015. There are three Respondents to the said Petition. They are the Appellant, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 3rd Respondent herein and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which is the 4th Respondent in this Appeal.

Each of the Respondents to the Petition filed a separate reply to the Petition wherein they joined issues with the Petitioners and also raised sundry objections to the Petition.

?The Petitioners in turn filed replies in response to all three Respondents replies to the said

Petition.

This was subsequently followed by a number of motions by the parties in the Petition seeking one relief or the other and this includes the Appellant?s motion on notice dated 23-6-2015 seeking an order of the Tribunal to strike out the Petition. The Appellants second motion dated 29-6-2015 also sought for an order striking out the Petitioners (now 1st and 2nd Respondents) reply for non compliance of with Paragraph 16(1) (a) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2010 (as recommended) having raised fresh issues.

The 1st and 2nd Respondents also reacted by filing counter affidavits and written addresses in opposition to the said motion. They in addition filed another motion on notice dated 16-7-2015 wherein they sought for the direction of the tribunal to defer the various preliminary objections till the end of trial of the Petition along with the final addresses.

?At the prehearing session held on 24-7-2015 the Tribunal ordered that all the pending motions be moved one by one by the relevant Applicants and same was done with necessary arguments canvassed in support. A few other motions were however on the application of counsel ordered to be heard

outside the pre-trial session.

At the resumed pre-trial session later on the same 24-7-2015 the Tribunal after granting one of the 1st&2nd Respondents application for an order to bring all Electoral materials used in the Governorship elections held on 11-4-2015 and 25-4-2015 Ruled as follows:-

TRIBUNAL:- The Tribunal in respect of these motions moved today by:-

?The Petition (sic) filed 16-07-2015; 29-6-2015,The 1st Respondents motions moved on 24-7-2015. The motions were filed 18-07-2015, 20-06-2015 and 30-06-2015 In respect of Motions of the 2nd Respondent moved (sic)24-07-2015. These motions were filed 01-07-2015, 01-07-2015 and 09-07-2015. In Respect of 3rd Respondent motions moved on 24-7-2015, the ones filed on 01-07-2015, 01-07-2015 and 02-07-2015.