IMO: PRESIDENT BUHARI NEEDS TO PROBE INEC OVER SUPREME COURT INDICTMENT

Supreme Court decision on Imo election is a serious indictment of INEC. The unanimous decision without a dissenting view, President Buhari should probe Imo INEC Commissioner and find out why 388 units results declared by INEC at units level were not added to Hope Uzodinma result. What did INEC do to this result? President Buhari needs to probe this indictment on INEC. Why did INEC declare Ihedioha winner in the first place when he did not meet the constitutional requirements? President Buhari needs to probe INEC because Supreme Court judgement is a serious indictment of INEC. This is the horrible crime when Electoral thief who withheld results of more than 388 Polling Units.His name: Professor Francis Ezeonu, the Imo State Electoral Commissioner. He should be prosecuted. This is how the single act of one man can ruin a nation. This is how the despicable act of one man, can ruin a state. This is totally unacceptable from anybody privileged to be called a professor.

The thrust of the Imo governorship election case which the supreme court delivered judgment is whether or not Emeka Ihedioha secores 25% of the total valid votes cast in two-third of the 27 local governments in Imo State as spelt out in section 179 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. The certified true copy of form EC8D duly certified by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC clearly showed that PDP candidate, Emeka Ihedioha only got two-third in 11 local government areas of Imo State. Emeka Ihedioha did not meet up with constitutional requirement to be the governor of Imo State.

There are 10 Reasons Why Supreme Court Awarded Victory To Hope Uzodinma Despite Coming Fourth.

The Nigerian Supreme Court, recently awarded victory to Senator Hope Uzodinma, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 9, 2019 governorship election. In the unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the apex court nullified the victory of candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Emeka Ihedioha. Since the judgment was delivered, tongues have been wagging especially considering that Uzodinma came a distant fourth in the election results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

There are three main contenders in the case at the Supreme Court – Hon. Emeka Ihedioha of the peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 273,404 votes, Senator Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with 96,458 votes and Senator Ifeanyi Ararume of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) with 114,676 votes.

So why did the Supreme Court declare Uzodinma as the validly elected governor of Imo State and not Nwosu or Ararume? Here are 10 reasons you should know.

1. The candidate with the second highest vote in the March 9, 2019 governorship election in Imo State, Uche Nwosu of the Action Alliance (AA), with a total vote caste of 190,364 had withdrawn his case against Emeka Ihedioha at the Supreme Court, following an earlier judgment of the same court which declared that his nomination by the Action Alliance was not valid having failed to properly resign his membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

His withdrawal therefore leaves the case between Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, Senator Hope Uzodinma and Senator Ifeanyi Ararume.

2. Senator Hope Uzodinma tendered duplicates of the original result sheets of form EC8A from his agents at the polls as well as Certified True Copies of the same result from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which shows that results from 388 polling units where he won with over 200,000 votes were cancelled and not collated by INEC having earlier been announced the results entered in the result sheets.

3. The police as a party to every election keep copies of results declared. When they were subpoenaed by the Tribunal, they corroborated the result tendered by Senator Hope Uzodinma and the All progressives Congress (APC), proving that the votes from 388 polling units were actually won by Uzodinma but were later cancelled by INEC.

4. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could not counter the results from the 388 polling units which Uzodinma tendered as evidence that he won the election in these units. Although the PDP claimed the results were fake, they could not provide any evidence to back their claim.

5. Agents of all political parties who participated at the governorship election including that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and INEC Presiding Officers signed the result sheets, thereby attesting to the fact that the results from the 388 polling units which INEC later cancelled were valid. In addition to their signatures on the result sheets, none of them disputed the results or their signatures at the hearing of the case.

6. INEC confirmed to the court, the serial numbers in the results of the 388 polling units tendered by Uzodinma and the APC as their own, hereby confirming that the duplicate result sheets are genuine.

7. Based on 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 above, the the Supreme Court did not see any reason why valid votes from 388 polling units scored by Senator Hope Uzodinma were excluded from the final computation of results. In their view, the votes were unlawfully cancelled and were thus added to the initial 96, 458 votes scored by Uzodinma, making him the candidate with the highest votes scored at the election.

8. The candidate with the third highest vote, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume with 114,676 votes did not request to be declared governor-elect and the court does not act upon request that has not been brought before her. Ararume only requested the court to order for a rerun election on the ground that Ihedioha did not score the Constitutional spread of votes across the LGAs of the State, hinging his request on Section 179 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 which states that A candidate for an election to the office of Governor of a State shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being two or more candidates – (a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the local government areas in the State.

9. Even if the Ararume had requested to be declared governor and the court were to act on his request, his request would have been overtaken by the addition of the over 200,000 votes obtained from the 388 polling unit to the 96,458 votes earlier scored by Uzodinma.

10. So effectively and on the ground of 1. The withdrawal of Uche Nwosu of Action Alliance (AA) from the case, the addition of the over 200,000 votes to the 96,458 votes earlier scored that the Supreme Court declared Senator Hope Uzodinma the winner of the Imo governorship election and therefore ordered that INEC immediately issue him a Certificate of return.