APGA wants own candidate declared Abia gov

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has called for the declaration of its candidate in the 2015 elections, Dr. Alex Otti, as the duly elected governor of Abia State.
The party expressed mixed feelings over the stalemate that trailed the sacking of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu as governor of the state and his subsequent replacement by Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah.
APGA, in a press statement signed by its chairman in the state, Rev. Augustine Ehiemere, said while the Abuja Federal High Court acted well by sacking Ikpeazu, the court should not have declared Ogah as governor because he did not participate in the actual gubernatorial election.
According to the party: “We humbly disagree with the consequential order by the court which directed for the swearing in of Dr. Uche Ogah as the governor. This order, which we consider as a huge error, is not only unacceptable to APGA, but untenable in Nigeria’s 2010 Electoral Act as amended, which forbids any person that did not take part in all the stages of an election from being declared winner.”
The party said “since there was no record anywhere to show that Dr. Uche Ogah won the primaries of his party, the PDP, let alone partook in all the stages of the last governorship election in Abia State, his declaration as the governor by the court was strange and alien to the law.
“Our humble demand is that the appellate court, while upholding the Ikpeazu guilty verdict, should correct this huge error by issuing the right order, which is to declare the candidate that scored the highest lawful votes, Dr Alex Otti (APGA) as the governor.”
Besides Ikpeazu, Ogah and Otti, a fourth contender, Friday Nwanozie Nwosu, is also at the court seeking to be declared  as governor of Abia State under the platform of the PDP.
Nwosu, who came third in the PDP primary poll, said Ogah should not be sworn-in as governor because he rejected the result of the primary poll, based on allegations of irregularities.