Another fresh twist in the battle who for who governs Imo State has commenced with the victory of Senator Hope Uzodinma in the Supreme Court and continued stay as governor threatened.
The move is championed by one of the parties who took part in the governorship contest, the Reform Advancement Party, RAP in the 2019 election.
Reason for challenging the competence of Uzodimmma as governor is based on the earlier declaration of the Supreme Court that Chief Uche Nwosu who ran the governorship race in 2019 under the Action Alliance, AA, was disqualified as he was the APC candidate.
But in the final judgment of the Imo State Governorship Election, the Supreme Court declared Uzodinma of the APC winner thereby removing Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP who was earlier declared winner by the, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The new move is at the Abuja division of the Federal High Court.
In the fresh suit, the Reform and Advancement Party (RAP) and its 2019 governorship candidate in Imo state, Mr. Okere Kingdom has approached the Abuja division of the Federal High court for a judicial interpretation on whether the All Progressives congress (APC) actually sponsored Governor Hope Uzodinma as its candidate for the said election.
The plaintiffs are specifically asking the court to order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Governor Uzodinma and to issue a fresh one to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Emeka Ihedioha as the validly elected governor of the state.
The suit is predicted against the backdrop of the judgment of the Supreme Court in appeal no:\u00a0 SC\/1384\/2019 which upheld the decision of both the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court and affirmed\u00a0 Ugwumba Uche Nwosu as the authentic and duly elected\/nominated 2019 Imo State\u00a0 governorship candidate of the APC.
In an originating summons dated\u00a0 and filed on June 25,\u00a0 2020, marked FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/677\/2020, the plaintiffs\u00a0 formulated the following questions for determination, \u201cwhether the 1st defendant (Uzodinma) lawfully participated and\u00a0 was sponsored by the 4th defendant (APC),\u00a0 to contest the 2019 Imo governorship election in accordance with section 177 (c)\u00a0 of the 1999 Constitution of the\u00a0 Federal Republic of Nigeria; having regard to the tenor, clear and\u00a0 unambiguous legal implications\/consequences of the judgment\u00a0 of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in appeal no:\u00a0 SC\/1384\/2019 which upheld the decision of both the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court\u00a0 and\u00a0 affirmed\u00a0 Ugwumba Uche Nwosu as the authentic and duly elected\/nominated 2019 Imo State\u00a0 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress\u00a0 (4th Defendant), and which decision also nullified Uche Nwosu and the 4th defendant\u2019s participation in the 2019 Imo State Governorship election on the ground that he (Ugwumba Uche Nwosu) was nominated by both the 4th\u00a0 defendant and\u00a0 Action Alliance (5th defendant) for the same\u00a0 governorship election.
\u201cWhether All Progressives Congress (4th defendant)\u00a0 lawfully\u00a0 participated and sponsored a candidate in the 2019 Imo State Governorship election,\u00a0 having regard to the tenor, clear and\u00a0 unambiguous\u00a0 legal implications\/consequences of the judgment\u00a0 of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in appeal no:\u00a0 SC\/1384\/2019 which upheld the decision of both the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court\u00a0 and\u00a0 affirmed\u00a0 Ugwumba Uche Nwosu as the authentic and duly elected\/nominated 2019 Imo State\u00a0 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress\u00a0 (4th Defendant); and which decision also nullified Uche Nwosu and the 4th defendant\u2019s participation in the 2019 Imo State Governorship election on the ground that he (Ugwumba Uche Nwosu) was nominated by both the 4th defendant and\u00a0 Action Alliance (5th defendant) for the same\u00a0 governorship election.
\u201cWhether section 177 (c) the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been amended, altered or suspended to enable and allow the 1st Defendant participate in the 2019 Imo State Governorship election as an independent candidate; in view of the decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in SC\/1384\/2019 which upheld Ugwumba Uche Nwosu as duly elected and nominated 2019 Imo State governorship candidate of the 4th defendant.
In case the above questions are answered in the affirmative, the plaintiffs are among others praying the court to \u201d declare that Uzodinma did not lawfully participate and was not\u00a0 sponsored by the 4th defendant\u00a0 to contest the 2019 Imo State Governorship election in accordance with Section 177 (c)\u00a0 of the 1999 Constitution of the\u00a0 Federal Republic of Nigeria; having regard to the tenor, clear and\u00a0 unambiguous legal implications\/consequences of the judgment\u00a0 of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in appeal no:\u00a0 SC\/1384\/2019 which upheld the decision of both the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court\u00a0 and\u00a0 affirmed\u00a0 Ugwumba Uche Nwosu as the authentic and duly elected\/nominated 2019 Imo State\u00a0 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress\u00a0 (4th Defendant); and which decision also nullified Uche Nwosu and the 4th defendant\u2019s participation in the 2019 Imo State Governorship election on the ground that he (Ugwumba Uche Nwosu) was nominated by both the 4th\u00a0 defendant and\u00a0 Action Alliance (5th defendant) for the same\u00a0 governorship election.
\u201cA declaration that the All Progressives Congress (4th defendant) did not lawfully participate\u00a0 and sponsor any\u00a0 candidate in the 2019 Imo State Governorship election;\u00a0 having regard to the tenor, clear and\u00a0 unambiguous\u00a0 legal implications\/consequences of the judgment\u00a0 of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in appeal no:\u00a0 SC\/1384\/2019 which upheld the decision of both the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court\u00a0 and\u00a0 affirmed\u00a0 Ugwumba Uche Nwosu as the authentic and duly elected\/nominated 2019 Imo State\u00a0 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress\u00a0 (4th Defendant); and which decision also nullified Uche Nwosu and the 4th defendant\u2019s participation in the 2019 Imo State Governorship election on the ground that he (Ugwumba Uche Nwosu) was nominated by both the 4th\u00a0 defendant and\u00a0 Action Alliance (5th defendant) for the same\u00a0 governorship election.
\u201d A declaration that section 177 (c) the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria HAS NOT been amended, altered or suspended to enable and allow the 1st Defendant participate in the 2019 Imo State Governorship election as an independent; in view of the decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in SC\/1384\/2019 which upheld Ugwumba Uche Nwosu as duly elected and nominated 2019 Imo State governorship candidate of the 4th defendant.
The plaintiffs wants an order of perpetual injunction restraining the 1st Defendant from continuous occupying, illegally acting\u00a0 and performing\u00a0 the functions of\u00a0 the office of the Governor of Imo State (2nd\u00a0 defendant)\u00a0 on the ground that he was not the governorship candidate of the 4th\u00a0 defendant and did not participate in the 2019 Imo state Governorship election.
An order mandating and or compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (7th defendant) to immediately withdraw the certificate of return issued to the 1st defendant and reissue same to the candidate of the 6th defendant who lawfully participated and scored the highest number of lawful votes cast in the 2019 Imo governorship election and who was sponsored by the 6th defendant in accordance with section 177 (c) of the 1999 constitution. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another fresh twist in the battle who for who governs Imo State has commenced with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-frontpage"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/uche-and-hope.jpg",623,406,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/uche-and-hope-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/uche-and-hope-300x196.jpg",300,196,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/uche-and-hope.jpg",623,406,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/uche-and-hope.jpg",623,406,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/uche-and-hope.jpg",623,406,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/uche-and-hope.jpg",623,406,false],"elegant-magazine-featured":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/uche-and-hope.jpg",623,406,false],"elegant-magazine-medium":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/uche-and-hope.jpg",583,380,false],"elegant-magazine-medium-small":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/uche-and-hope.jpg",300,196,false],"elegant-magazine-thumbnail-small":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/uche-and-hope.jpg",50,33,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Imo Trumpeta"]},"category_info":"Frontpage<\/a>","tag_info":"Frontpage","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29137,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29136\/revisions\/29137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}