Imo governorship: Ihedioha returns to Supreme Court

 

The contest for the Imo State governorship seat has been reignited as ousted governor Emeka Ihedioha returns to the Supreme Court today to seek a review of the judgment that removed him from office.

The Supreme Court had on January 14, 2020 sacked Ihedioha of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on the ground that he did not score the lawful majority votes in the March 9, 2019 governorship election.

In his place, the apex court, after adding cancelled results of the 388 polling units to the votes scored by Senator Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC), ordered that he be immediately sworn in as the duly elected governor.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the apex court held that Ihedioha was not duly elected and that “his election was void and illegal.”

READ: REVEALED: Supreme Court berates INEC in Ihedioha’s sacking

The court consequently set aside the judgment of the Imo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and that of the Court of Appeal, both of which had refused to recognise the votes from the 388 polling units and to accept that the results were unlawfully excluded in the general collation.

The Guardian obtained a certified-true-copy of the record of the appeal filed at the Supreme Court by Uzodinma and APC, issued by Nwana Ejike, Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Owerri, from an earlier record compiled by Ibrahim Garba, Secretary of the Imo State Election Petition Tribunal, which shows that there were mathematical and factual inconsistencies which the apex court ignored.