* Ikpeazu

The Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed the return  of Okezie Ikpeazu in the 2019 governorship election  as the governor of Abia State.

Justice Paul Galinje,  read the court’s unanimous judgement on behalf of the 7-member panel

He declared that the appellant’s reliance solely on the smart card readers in proving the alleged over-voting was fatal to their case.

Galinje further held that the law is clear that the petitioner must tender the voter’s register, and should relate the document to the specific area where the documents were affected.

Continuing, the judge added that  the card reader print out tendered by the appellants at the tribunal cannot be inserted into the constitution or electoral act which stipulates the yardstick for proving over voting.

The judge said that the appellants failed to provide credible evidence to prove their case.

He finally held that the two lower courts are right to dismiss the appeal and it will suffer the same fate in the Supreme Court.

Accordingly the appeal lacked merit and are “equally dismissed”, he ruled.

It will be recalled that the  candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Alex Otti, and his party had approached the apex court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal which upheld the election of Governor Ikpeazu.