Correct Error In 2019 Imo Gov’ship Judgement, Groups Tell Supreme Court 

The Supreme Court has a golden opportunity to bounce back as the greatest institution in the country by undoing the judgement that led to the emergence of Senator Hope Uzodinma as the Governor of Imo State, Ethnic Youth Leaders have said.

The Youth Leaders believed firmly that the Supreme Court will use the launch pad provided by the appeal/motion listed for hearing before the apex court sitting at Abuja on October 31, 2023 to correct what they called a “fundamental judicial error”.

According to them, Nigerians and even people beyond the country were still living in shock after about four years ago when the Supreme Court delivered judgement which declared Uzodinma winner of the 2019 Imo governorship election against human logic as the fourth candidate took over the position of the first leaving out the second and third candidates.

“We the Ethnic Youth Leaders like many other Nigerians of conscience, believe firmly that the Supreme Court will use the launch pad provided by the appeal/motion listed for hearing before the apex court sitting at Abuja on 31st October, 2023 to correct that fundamental judicial error.

“Nigerians and even people beyond the country are still living in shock after about four years ago when the Supreme Court delivered judgement which declared Uzodinma winner of the 2019 Imo governorship election against human logic as the fourth took over the position of the first leaving out the second and third.

“In retrospect, the Supreme Court had January 14, 2020 sacked Emeka Ihedioha as Governor of Imo state and affirmed Hope Uzodinma as winner of the March 2019 election,” they said.

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Ihedioha winner of the election but Uzodinma, who came fourth, challenged the outcome of the election at the Tribunal.

INEC results had shown that Ihedioha, who ran under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured 273,404 votes in the election; Uche Nwosu of Action Alliance had 190,364 votes; Ifeanyi Ararume of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) polled 114,676 votes while Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) secured 96,458 votes.

But, in a unanimous decision, a seven-man panel of Supreme Court Justices held that Ihedioha did not win majority of votes cast in the election and ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to the then governor and give a fresh one Uzodinma.

Ihedioha’s effort to correct this anomaly was quashed by the Supreme Court when it held that that it lacked powers to sit on appeal in its own judgment delivered on merit and in accordance with dictates of the law and justice.

The then governor appealed the Supreme Court’s decision on grounds that; Uzodinma deceived the Supreme Court with his self-tabulated results from 388 polling units, and based on the results accepted by the Supreme Court, the number of voters in the Imo governorship election outnumber the accredited voters for the election, a situation that would ordinarily invalidate an election.

The Supreme Court’s removal of Ihedioha and enthronement of Uzodinma received condemnation even among the Justices who warned against the repercussions of that precedence set for Nigeria’s democracy.

One of the judges of the apex court, Centus Nweze, had said the decision of Supreme Court on the Imo governorship election was wrong and “will continue to haunt our (Nigeria’s) electoral jurisprudence for a long time to come.”

Nweze, who disagreed with the majority ruling of his six colleagues in his minority judgment held that a judgment or order can be set aside on merit and the apex court has the power to overrule itself and has done so in the past.

He said: “In my intimate reading of the January 14 judgment, the meat and substance of Ihedioha’s matter were lost to time frame. This court once set aside its own earlier judgment and therefore cannot use the time frame to extinguish the right of any person. This court has powers to overrule itself and can revisit any decision not in accordance with justice. The decision of the Supreme Court in the instant matter will continue to haunt our electoral jurisprudence for a long time to come.”

Ethnic Youth Leaders which comprises of Arewa Consultative Youths Movement, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youths Movement, Oduduwa Youths and Middle Belt Youths, in a joint statement by the Ohanaeze Secretary-General, Nwada Ike Chiamaka, said the apex Court can now rewrite its history with the golden pen provided by the appeal filed by Uche Nwosu of Action People’s Party.

The socio-cultural groups said they were fully in support of the lawsuit set for hearing on October 31, reminding the highest court of the land that “October 31 is judgement day, the judgement that it must use to right the already done wrong so as to bounce back to its true position as the hope of the common man.”