The Supreme Court has on March 3 dismissed an application filed by Emeka Ihedioha, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) asking the court to review its judgment which sacked him as Imo state governor and installed Hope Uzodinma of the APC.
The suit was dismissed in a majority judgement of a seven-man panel of judges led by Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad.
Six of the judges on the panel agreed with the apex court’s verdict while Justice Chima Nweze gave a dissenting judgment, stressing that the decision ought to be reviewed.
With the present ruling, Senator Hope Uzodinma has been confirmed as the authentic governor of Imo State.
According to the judge, there is no evidence that Governor Uzodinma satisfied the required spread to have been declared the winner of the election.
He, therefore, told other judges on the panel that the judgment upholding Uzodinma’s victory in the March poll would continue to haunt the nation’s electoral jurisprudence.
On March 9, 2019, INEC had declared Ihedioha as the winner of the governorship election in Imo State on the ground that he won the majority of lawful votes cast at the governorship poll.
Meanwhile the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, during appeals filed by Senator Uzodinma, upheld Ihedioha’s election and dismissed Uzodinma’s petition on grounds that he did not prove his allegations against the election of Ihedioha. But the apex court held otherwise and sacked Ihedioha on January 14, 21019.
