The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, Abia State has dismissed the petition brought before it by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Mr. Uche Ogah against Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and four others.
Ruling on a motion filed by Governor Ikpeazu, (who is the fourth respondent) through his legal team, the chairman of the panel, Justice A.L. Ogumoye held that the petitioners were deemed to have abandoned their petition having failed to activate the pre-trial hearing process within the time stipulated by the First Schedule of the Electoral Act.
The panel had earlier dismissed two applications filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the grounds that the seal of the legal practitioner who filed the documents was not attached, thereby rendering the documents invalid.
Reacting to the ruling, one of the lawyers representing Governor Ikpeazu, Mr. Uche Ihediwa and that of the PDP, James Igwe (SAN) hailed the decision of the tribunal to strike out the suit.
The tribunal also fixed June 19 to commence the trial of the petition filed by Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) against Ikpeazu, having concluded pre-hearing of the matter on Friday last week.
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