•Hope Uzodinma
The Supreme Court today affirmed the re-election of Imo State governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma.
Last November, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Uzodimma, the then candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the November 11, 2023 governorship election in Imo State.
According to INEC, Uzodimma polled 540,308 votes to beat Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 71,503 votes; and Athan Achonu of Labour Party (LP) who secured 64,081 votes.
But the LP and PDP candidates had alleged irregularities in the polls and went ahead to contest the result at the Imo State Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja.
Not satisfied with the tribunal ruling that ruled in Uzodimma’s favour, they approached the appeal court to upturn the earlier verdict.
Despite losing at the appellate court, they sought refuge in the Supreme Court to turn aside the lower court’s verdict.
Hearing the case in Abuja, the apex court dismissed the two appeals filed by the Labour Party (LP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their governorship candidate challenging Uzodimma’s victory at the polls.
The appeals of the LP governorship candidate, Athan Achonu and that of PDP, Samuel Anyanwu, were dismissed for want of merit by the Supreme Court which consequently affirmed Uzodinma as a lawfully elected governor of Imo State.
In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Baba Idris, the LP and PDP gubernatorial candidates were said to have failed to establish allegations of overvoting and other malpractices against the November 11, 2023 poll.
In a unanimous decision, the apex court upheld the earlier decisions of the Court of Appeal and that of the Imo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sat in Abuja and dismissed the petitions in their separate judgments.
