CSOs fault Supreme Court judgment on Imo Governorship election

A coalition of Civil Society Organisations on Sunday faulted the judgment of the Supreme Court that sacked Emeka Ihedioha and declared Sen. Hope Uzodinma as governor of Imo.

Dr Manzo Abubakar, The Executive Director of Abuja Discussion Group, who led the group while briefing newsmen, urged Ihedioha to go to the apex court to ask for a review of the judgment.

Abubakar said that the Supreme Court’s decision in the appeal was “unreliable and unscientific”.

He said that there was nowhere in the petition or evidence that Uzodinma claimed that he met the constitutional requirement of the spread to be declared the winner.

“Uzodinma only claimed it in the reliefs without any supporting pleadings or evidence; it is one of the wonders of the world that the Supreme court declared him winner without any evidence is spread”.

He noted that, the Supreme Court has denied the Imo people the opportunity to chose their leader, adding that His Lordships are mortals and are prone to mistakes.

He therefore called on Ihedioha to approach the court to correct the errors they made in their decision and restore justice, peace and hope in the judicial system to restore public confidence in the judiciary.

The Supreme Court, on Jan. 14, sacked Ihedioha, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as Governor of Imo on grounds that he did not score the lawful majority votes in the March 9, 2019 governorship election held in the state.

In his place, the apex court ordered that Uzodinma of the All Progressive Congress (APC) be immediately sworn in as the duly elected governor of the state, in place of Ihedioha.

In the unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere -Ekun, the apex court agreed that results in 388 polling units were unlawfully excluded during the collation of the final governorship election result in Imo state.

Kekere-Ekun said with the result from the 388 polling units , the APC governorship candidate polled majority lawful votes and ought to have been declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC).

She held that the lower courts erred in law when they rejected the evidence tendered before them to the extent that the votes from the cancelled polling units, totaling 213, 295 in 388 polling units were not credited to the APC and Hope Uzodinma.

The court held that Ihedioha was not dully elected, “His election void and illegal”.

The court ordered that the certificate of return wrongly issued to lhedioha be immediately withdrawn by INEC and a fresh one issued to Uzodinma as the elected governor of the state.

Kekere-Ekun in the judgment 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 recognize and accept the votes of the 388 polling units as being unlawfully excluded in the general collation.

Uzodinma and APC had in their appeal pleaded with the apex court to review the judgment of the two lower courts against them and restore their victory in the March 9 governorship election.

The two appellants maintained that the unlawful exclusion of votes from 388 polling units denied them victory in the election.