The Supreme Court on Tuesday, in a unanimous Judgment sacked
Emeka Ihedioha as Governor of Imo State and ordered the immediate swearing in
of candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Hope Uzodinma, as
lawful winner of the March 9, 2019 governorship election in Imo State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had in
March declared Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the
governorship election.
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However miffed by the decision of INEC, Uzodinma and his
party had approached the Imo State Election Petition Tribunal to nullify
Ihedioha’s election on grounds that he did not win majority of votes cast in the
election.
He also cited the issue of noncompliance with the electoral
guidelines as another grounds for the sack of Ihedioha.
In his ruling the tribunal however dismissed Uzodinma’s
appeal on grounds that he was unable to prove allegations made against the
election.
Similarly, the Court of Appeal which sat in Abuja had on
November 19 upheld the decision of the tribunal, forcing Uzodinma to approach
the apex court to get justice.
In the Court’s unanimous Judgment which was delivered by
Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the Supreme Court held that the case of the
appellants had merit and consequently granted the reliefs as prayed by the
appellants.
According to the apex court, the concurrent judgments of the
lower court erred in law when it excluded votes totalling 213,295 from 388
polling units from the total scores at the election.
According to the apex court, Ihedioha was returned as
Governor of Imo State based on wrong computation of the election results in the
state.
Justice Kekere-Ekun said the lower court misconstrued the
case of the appellants that he was challenging the validity of the election
whereas he was challenging the unlawful exclusion of votes in the 388 polling
units.
The apex court further held that the lower courts were also
wrong in holding that PW 54, a police officer who was on subpoena was not the
appropriate person to have tendered documents that showed the exclusion of votes
in the 388 polling units during collation.
The apex court consequently set aside the judgment of the
Court of Appeal which upheld the election of Emeka Ihedioha on the grounds that
he did not win majority of the votes cast during the March 9 governorship
election.
In addition, the court held that the excluded votes from the
388 polling units be ascribed to the appellants.Consequently the apex court ordered the
Independent National Electoral Commission to withdraw the Certificate of Return
issued to Ihedioha and issued a fresh Certificate of Return to candidate of the
APC on grounds that he won majority of lawful votes cast at the election