ABIA STATE Governor, DR OKEZIE IKPEAZU, has expressed gratitude to God and the Judiciary for reaffirming his electoral victory at the Supreme Court and assured ABIANS of better and brighter days ahead.
The Governor who was speaking at his Umuobiakwa home town while reacting to the Supreme Court judgement that reaffirmed his victory over Dr Alex Otti, the APGA governorship candidate in the 2019 general elections vowed to deliver more dividends of democracy to the people of the state as their reward for supporting his administration.
He equally expressed gratitude to religious leaders, Traditional Rulers, women and youth groups and other stakeholders in the State for their sustained faith and support for him, noting that his journey to the governorship seat has seen him overcome many artificial landmines targeted at derailing him from achieving his objective of leaving Abia better than he met it.
According to him, he remains the only Governor in Nigeria that has been removed twice and still sitting as State Governor.
Recalling his ordeal through the courts, DR. IKPEAZU reiterated that he was in court for the greater part of his first tenure, up till March of 2018 and thanked God that the long tortuous journey has finally come to an end with the latest Supreme Court judgement.
The Governor who was visibly elated said he feels challenged to do more for ABIANS, especially the less privileged in the days ahead, as a reward for the unflinching support of the people, pointing out that the coming days would be full of positive activities.
He therefore pledged to deliver on the mandate freely given to him by ABIANS as well as acquit himself creditably on the job.
Commending the Justices of the Supreme Court for their steadfastness in delivering justice, DR IKPEAZU thanked the Judiciary generally for remaining the last hope of the common man and lauded the reforms in that Arm of Government which brought about the speedy delivery of the Supreme Court judgement.
He then used the forum to call on the defeated APGA Governorship candidate, DR. ALEX OTTI, to feel free to contribute his quota to the development of the State.
”I say to him, if he has anything whatsoever to contribute to the development of Abia, time is ripe now for him to make those contributions and make sure that his name also would join the names of other great names on the golden pages of Abia”,
While dismissing the appeal of DR ALEX OTTI in the landmark ruling at the SUPREME COURT, JUSTICE PAUL GALINJE said “The law is clear that the petitioner must tender the voter registers and relate the documents to the specific polling units.
“However, in this case, the appellant has not done so, he merely dumped forms EC8A and EC8B before the court, but did not call any witness to prove the allegations of overvoting.”
”The card reader printout tendered by the appellant was not the yardstick for proving overvoting”
