Imo Guber: S’Court Rules On Appeals, Today

Ahead of today’s hearing at the Supreme Court, the camp of former Imo State governor, Hon Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has expressed optimism that they would get justice.
At the first hearing in his suit against the judgement which installed Senator Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as Imo State governor, the court adjourned hearing to March 2.
Ihedioha, through his lawyer and former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Kanu Agabi (SAN) wants the court to remove Uzodinma from office.
Yesterday, Ihedioha’s Special Assistant on New Media, A.I.C. Akwarandu, told newsmen that they expect that the apex court would be fair.
“We are confident that Justice will be done in the matter. The issues are very clear, ranging from mathematical imbalance to issues of geographical spread to other salient issues”, he said.
“The Supreme Court has another opportunity to prove to Nigerians, who are all watching that, indeed the court is the last hope of the common man. We believe Ihedioha will be declared winner.
“Ihedioha has conducted himself in the best manner during this period. No violence attack on anybody, no riot. He strongly believes in Nigeria and the fact that justice can be done in this country.”
The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad, heads the panel hearing Ihedioha’s suit.
The same panel will hear the application by Zamfara APC, challenging the governorship election judgement in favour of the PDP and Governor Bello Matawalle.
Other members of the panel are Justices Kayode Ariwoola, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Inyang Okoro, Amina Augie, Sylvester Ngwuta and Uwani Abba-Aji.
The court in January ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise Uzodinma as duly elected.
The judgment delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun declared that the APC candidate polled majority votes.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will today hear and make a pronouncement on the application by former governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha urging it to set aside its January 14, 2020, judgment that ousted him from office in favour of the incumbent governor of the state, Senator Hope Uzodinma.
The motion which was filed by the legal team of the former governor headed by Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), was in respect of appeals Nos: SC. 1462/2019; SC/1470/2019; CA/OW/GOV/05/2019 and petition No: EPT/GOV/IM/08/2019, between Senator Hope Uzodinma, All Progressives Congress (APC) and Hon Emeka Ihedioha, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
It is the contention of Ihedioha that the judgment of the Supreme Court be set aside is a nullity as it was obtained by fraud.
On this ground, Ihedioha submitted that “the appellants/respondents (Uzodinma) fraudulently misled the court into holding that a total of 213,495 votes were unlawfully excluded from the votes scored by the 1st appellant/respondent in the gubernatorial election of March 9, 2019 in Imo State.
He further submitted that “the 1st appellant/respondent admitted under cross-examination that he was the person (and not the 3rd respondent (INEC or any of its officials) who computed the result that gave him the 213,495 votes alleged to have been excluded from his total votes in the election.
“The fraudulent nature of the additional votes was demonstrated by the fact that the total votes cast as shown in the 1st appellant/ respondent’s computation was more than the total number of voters accredited for the election and in some polling units more than the total number of registered voters.
“The fraud was also demonstrated by the fact that the result computed by the 1st appellant/Respondent showed only the votes of the 1st Applicant and the 1st Appellant/respondent without specifying the votes scored by the other 68 candidates who participated in the election.
But responding, Governor Hope Uzodimma has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss an application filed by former Governor Emeka Ihedioha, seeking the setting aside of its January 14 judgment that removed him from office.
The governor position is contained in his preliminary objection challenging the competence of Ihedioha’s motion.