Alex Otti's Cross Appeal – Matters Arising, By Onyebuchi Ememanka

 

It is no longer news that Alex Otti's lawyers have filed a cross appeal at the Supreme Court against some portions of the judgment of the Court of Appeal which declared him winner of the last governorship elections in Abia State. 

 

This application has led to several reactions ranging from the uninformed to the utterly ridiculous.

 

It's funny when you see people who have never entered even a customary court room in their entire lives nor had any contact with any legal document trying to dissect a process filed at the highest court in the land. It is like a patent medicine seller discussing a complex surgical procedure.

 

In this post, I shall speak as a lawyer, not as a politician.

 

First, a Cross Appeal is a perfectly normal procedure in our appellate jurisprudence. Our laws provide for it. In filing a cross appeal, Alex Otti has not committed any harakiri neither has he done anything abnormal. What he did is something well within his rights to do. This must be clearly understood.

 

Now, a closer study of the contents of the document filed by Alex Otti's lawyers show that it is a rather smart and desperate move. They have clearly understood the insufficiency of the judgment delivered by the Court of Appeal. They have realized that the judgment cannot survive the scrutiny of the Supreme Court, especially in the light of the decision in the Zamfara State matter.

 

In laying down the principles that govern over voting, the Supreme Court practically tore to shreds, the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

 

Incidentally, the Court of Appeal based her judgment solely on over voting and nothing more, and in a rather bizzare pronouncement, stated that the issue was conclusively proved by Otti even when no single credible shred of evidence was given.

 

The Court of Appeal based their judgement on the evidence of two witnesses only. While the testimony of Ahamdi Nweke is clearly hearsay as he testified based on reports he received from other people, the INEC officer only came to dump documents on the tribunal. Documents that she never made. 

 

So having read the Zamfara judgment and having realized that it is in clear conflict with what the Court of Appeal decided, Otti and his lawyers decided to act "ex abundante cautela". 

 

The truth is that the judgment doesn't help their case in any way. The principles upon which the decision was reached are not only narrow but dangerously flawed. By basing the judgement solely on over voting and nothing else, they boxed Otti into a very tight corner. 

 

Again, the Court of Appeal also shot Otti in the legs when they held and rightly too that the initial cancellation of the results from the three local governments by the State Returning Officer was an illegal act. That statement in the judgement practically strengthens Ikpeazu's case. If the Returning Officer did not have the powers to cancel results already declared at the Unit and Ward levels, then the complaints of Otti were baseless ab initio.

 

So to create more breathing space for themselves, Otti's lawyers filed this cross appeal. It is simply a survival strategy. 

What the Court of Appeal judgment has done is to put pressure on the Otti group. It is amazing that a judgement which initially appeared to be in their favor now gives them sleepless nights. 

 

I believe strongly that Otti's lawyers must have received copies of the Notice of Appeal together with the grounds for the Appeal filed by lawyers to Ikpeazu and the PDP, and realized that what the Court of Appeal gave them was a horrendous Greek gift. 

 

In the Cross Appeal, they are now questioning the decision of the Court of Appeal in two major areas, namely the striking out of one of their grounds of appeal as a mere repetition and the pronouncement by the Court that the State Returning Officer did not have any powers under our laws to cancel results. 

 

Trust lawyers! We will always conjure something. Fees must be earned afterall! 

 

We eagerly await the commencement of legal fireworks at the apex court.

 

Onyebuchi Ememanka, is a Corporate Attorney

 

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