Ikpeazu, Abia Gov.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri, Imo State has ruled   that the Election Petition Tribunal has powers to take all preliminary motions along with the substantive petition and thus dismissed the appeal  brought before  it by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Okezie Ikpeazu  against the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Dr. Alex Otti, and the  party.

The appeals originated from a decision of the Abia State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia which ruled against the preliminary objections raised by PDP and Gov. Ikpeazu in the suit brought before it by Otti and APGA

In  a related development,  the case at the trial tribunal has been adjourned to October 14, 2015 for the adoption of final written addresses of the parties.

 unanimous judgment of a five-member panel of Justices,  the Court of Appeal, which earlier, struck out three of the four issues raised by PDP before dismissing the appeal, agreed that the entire appeal was premature because it was based on complaint against a ruling, which the tribunal has not yet delivered.

It further stated that there was no infringement of the right to fair hearing of the appellant as they were rightly heard by the trial tribunal before ruling was adjourned within the 180 days stipulated by the constitution.