Supreme Court on Friday granted leave to Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, to be joined as an interested party to challenge the election of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu as governor of Abia state.
Justice Clara Ogunbiyi led four other justices to arrive at the unanimous decision.
“The appellant applicant appeal challenging the August 5, 2016 judgment of the lower court has merit.
“The appeal is predicated on grounds of mixed law and facts and therefore, this court is compelled to grant it in the interest of justice.
“In the circumstance, the August 5, 2016 decision of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which refused to grant the applicant the permission to be joined in the pending Abia governorship suit is set aside.
“The prayer of the appellant urging this court consider his appeal against Gov. Ikpeazu Okezie is hereby deemed as filed before this court,’’ she said.
Ogubiyi also held that granting this leave for the applicant to appeal the decision of the lower court on the matter did not mean that the appeal could succeed.
“The law has established that once an application is challenging a matter on mixed law and facts, justice demands that he or she must be heard,’’ she said.
Justice Dati Yahaya, who presided over the case at the lower court, had ruled that Otti failed to establish his interest in the internal affairs of the PDP.
Yahaya also held that the applicant failed to give circumstantial reasons to sway the court to exercise its judicial discretion in his favour.
Among others, the court held that the applicant failed to transmit the proceedings of the trial court to the Court of Appeal, where his interest was supposed to be established.
According to the judge, Otti merely relied on affidavit depositions and that allowing the applicant to join the dispute would amount to attempt to change the nature of the suit from an intra-party to an inter party tussle.
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