THE People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded a review and reversal of the Supreme Court judgement on Imo state gubernatorial election that sacked Emeka Ihedioha as the governor of the state and advised the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Mohammed to step down as the CJN and chairman of the National Judicial Council.
During a press conference by the National Working Committee (NWC) of PDP by the chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, he rejected the apex court’s decision describing it as a ‘miscarriage of justice’.
Secondus questioned the rationality of the judgement given by a seven-man committee led by the Chief Justice of the Nation (CJN).
PDP alleged that the panel that delivered the decision of the worked on instructions given by certain forces in the presidency towards winning back states lawfully won by the PDP.
“The panel was changed three times and any judge that showed signs of not agreeing to murder democracy, in this case, was promptly removed by the CJN,” PDP alleged.
Secondus said as done in the Supreme Court verdict between the party’s candidate in 2019 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar and Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, where it ruled that for a petitioner to succeed in an alleged case of electoral malpractice or wrongful exclusion of votes, the petitioner must call witnesses of every polling unit, the same should have been done in the Imo State governorship verdict by the Supreme Court.
Raising further questions, the PDP challenged the verdict of the apex court with the result of the polls as announced by the Independent Electoral Committee (INEC).
The party said it is on record that the analysis of the votes from the Imo governorship election as at March 11, 2019, when the results were declared was total accredited votes is 823,743, total valid votes is 739,485, cancelled votes is 25, 130 while total valid votes is 714,355 but at the Supreme Court the total valid votes have increased to 950,952,” the party stated.
PDP demanded an explanation from the Supreme Court saying that the court should account for the 127, 209 votes in excess of total accredited votes of 823,743.
PDP alleged that Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, who was part of the seven-man panel, has been an agent of non-democratic legal proceedings that has unseated PDP in three cases.
Listing the cases, PDP pointed at Paul Ukpo versus Liyel Imoke where Imoke was removed in ‘very suspicious circumstances in 2007 when Kekere-Ekun was at the Court of Appeal’, Adeleke versus Oyetola delivered in 2019 ‘which annulled the election of Adeleke’; and now, Uzodinma V. Ihedioha delivered on January 14, 2020, which removed Ihedioha of the PDP.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94