THE Supreme Court has dismissed an application by Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to remove Hope Uzodinma as Imo state governor.
The applicant urged the court to give the Independent National Electoral Commission a consequential order to issue a certificate of return to Ihedioha as the validly elected Imo state governor in the 2019 election.
According to Ihedioha’s statement before the apex court, Uzodinma was deemed unfit to stand for election in the first place.
According to Ihedioha, Uche Nwosu was earlier declared by the court as the rightful candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Consequently, he said Uzodinma was not qualified to run for the election.
According to Tijjani Abubakar, who read the lead judgment on Tuesday, December 5, the application was frivolous and vexatious.
He added that the 60 days allotted to hear the election dispute had passed and that the court lacked the authority to decide the case.
The court fined PDP lawyer Mike Ozekhome (SAN) N40 million for bringing the case to court.
The ICIR reported in January 2020 that the apex court sacked Ihedioha as Imo state governor and declared Uzodinma of APC as duly elected governor.
In a court judgement by a seven-man panel led by the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammed, the decision to sack the incumbent governor was unanimously taken.
Announcing the panel’s decision, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return earlier issued to Ihedioha and issue same to Uzodinma.
In 2019, INEC announced that PDP candidate Ihedioha polled 273,404 votes, Nwosu had 190,364, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate Ararume got 114,676, while Uzodinma won 96,458.
On Sunday, November 12, INEC declared Uzodimma the winner of the state governorship poll held on Saturday, November 11. The victory gave Uzodinma a second and final term in office.
Uzodimma polled 540,308 votes to defeat his major opponents – Sam Anyanwu of the PDP, who got 71,503, and Anthony Achonu of the Labour Party (LP), who won 64,081 votes.
A reporter with the ICIR
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