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An Abia High Court sitting in Arochukwu has issued an order restraining the state Independent Electoral Commission (ABSIEC) from going on to conduct the Abia State Local Government election which was scheduled to hold on the 19th of May.
One Nwabueze Onwuneme had, in suit No. HAR/8/2023, dragged ABSIEC, its Chairman, Mkpa Agu Mkpa, Attorney General of Abia State, and Governor of Abia State to court, urging it to restrain the defendants from conducting the election, pending the determination of the motion on notice.
The planned election, the plaintiff averred has generated so much argument with majority of Abia people viewing the election as an attempt by the outgoing government, led by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, to set land mines for the incoming government of Alex Otti.
Read Also: Abia Guber: Name Those Who Offered You Bribe, Ikpeazu To Oti
After listening to both parties, Justice Benson Anya of the Abia State High Court, Arochukwu Division, granted the order restraining the defendants from conducting the election, pending the determination of the motion on notice.
The suit was adjourned to April 23 for the hearing of the motion on notice.
In another report, Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has thrown a challenge to the returning officer for the 18th of March governorship election in the state, Professor Nnenna Oti, to reveal the names of those who bullied and attempted to bribe her during the collation of the election results in Umuahia as she claimed.
He noted that the returning officer betrayed actually his confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) through her actions during and after the election.
The Eastern Updates reports that Oti, Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, (FUTO), Imo State, claimed that she was bullied but refused to be intimidated before and during the collation of results in Umuahia, Abia State capital.
The governor, who threw the challenge in a chat with journalists in Umuahia, alleged that Oti clearly came to execute a ‘hatchet job’ against the PDP in the state, considering her utterances after the election.
He also accused Oti of participating in the victory dance of the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Dr. Alex Otti, through her actions after the election, a contradiction of what was expected of the neutrality of INEC officials.
