The Supreme Court’s verdict two days ago that sacked Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo State has extended Nigeria’s political chase board of imponderables that ordinary mortals fail to understand.
Some people are shocked; some are in disbelief, while others are exasperated over a decision that catapulted a contestant in a race from the fourth to the first position, some 10 months after the race ended.
Yesterday, January 15, 2020, Hope Uzodinma, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), received his Certificate of Return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as the Supreme Court ordered in declaring him the real winner of the March 2019 gubernatorial poll in Imo. That ended the tenure of Ihedioha, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), after just eight months.
The 7-man Supreme Court judges in a unanimous judgment read by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun on Tuesday, declared that Uzodinma was validly elected even when official results declared by the INEC had placed him in the fourth position.
In the landmark judgment the apex court agreed that results in 388 polling units were unlawfully excluded during the collation of the final governorship election result in Imo.
In upholding Uzodinma’s appeal, the Supreme Court agreed that 236,600 votes in his favour were omitted in the 388 polling units.
When added to his initial result of 96,458, it gives a total of 333,058, helping Uzodinma leapfrog Ihedioha (with 283,404 votes), Uche Nwosu (with 190,364 votes) and Ifeanyi Araraume (with 114,676 votes) and go from fourth to first.
However, when the results tendered by Uzodinma, which the Supreme Court upheld, are accounted for, total votes at the election go up to 950,926 which is the sum of 236,600 and the 714,326 votes recorded by INEC.
In Owerri, the Imo State capital, the verdict has been felt fully. On Tuesday night as the pronouncement came from Abuja, businesses were shut abruptly. Hilary Eziefula, an Owerri-based accountant, noted that Owerri Municipal, which is always a beehive of activities, especially in the night, was like a ghost town, that Tuesday night. Eziefula said people were angry because they believe that the change of guards would drag the state backwards.
The feeling of mourning continued the day after the verdict, as Imonites gathered in groups, blaming the Presidency and the judiciary for the fate that befell Ihedioha – and themselves.
Nkwazema Tony Opara, a prominent businessman in the state, described the Supreme Court judgment as a rape of democracy.
“Imo has been plunged into another dark era, poverty and another era of unrestricted property looting,” he said. Similarly, Bernard Diala, a community leader from Obiagwu in Ngor/Okpala Local Government Area of the state, said another era of “darkness has enveloped” the State and that Imo would be worse off now economically.
“Under 8 months of Ihedioha, civil servants and low-income masses of Imo State got their full salaries,” said Emeka Njoku, a resident of the capital.
Katch Ononuju public affair analyst, described it as a “state capture.”
He wondered how the Supreme Court came about the number of accredited voters with which it declared Hope Uzodinma winner when recorded number of accredited voters by INEC was less.
Judgment painful but legally correct verdict – Ikonne
However, an Abuja-based prominent legal luminary, Kenneth Ikonne, said the Supreme Court judgment, though very painful, was legally correct.
Ikonne described the judgment as a perplexing paradox, stressing that Uzodinma might not have won the 2019 Imo State governorship election, yet the Supreme Court, on the facts, was right in declaring him the winner of that election in law.
According to Ikonne, the error was not the Supreme Court’s, but that of Governor Emeka Ihedioha’s legal team, and it was a crucially fatal error.
“What happened was this: during the governorship election in Imo State, apparently concocted results, perhaps not having any basis whatsoever in reality, but signed by INEC presiding officers, were turned in from more than 350 polling units, giving Hope Uzodinma of the APC an incredibly unassailable lead.
“When those results were transmitted to the wards collation centres, the collation officers, who had no power in law to cancel or reject them, rejected the said polling units results, and refused to collate them, thereby effectively excluding them from the total tally of the governorship result that was eventually declared by the Returning Officer.
“In the aftermath of the said exclusion, the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Governor Ihedioha the winner of the election.
“The exclusion of the results of those polling units was the fulcrum of the petition presented at the Tribunal by Hope Uzodinma.
“Without a cross petition praying for the nullification of those results, the law forbade Governor Ihedioha as respondent from raising the issue of the alleged serial corrupt practices and irregularities marring the said results, in a mere statement of defence; that was a new issue not nominated by Uzodinma as petitioner.
“Ihedioha, being a Respondent, could only have competently raised them via a cross petition, being a new issue not nominated by Uzodinma, the petitioner.
“Tragically, Ihedioha’s legal team forgot to include the pivotal cross petition. And in the absence of a cross petition, the Supreme Court was right in law, painfully though it may seem, to rely on the presumption of regularity and correctness enshrined by both the Electoral Act and Evidence Act in favour of the said results, and to reckon with them and add them up to the final result, since Ihedioha’s legal team had woefully failed to effectively attack the results and rebut that presumption.
“For the Supreme Court, this was the legally correct conclusion to come to, having found that INEC had no power in law to exclude polling units results duly affirmed by the various polling units presiding officers,” Ikonne stated.
He attributed the judgment to alleged desperation of the ruling APC to capture at least one state in the South East region in order to give the party a national spread that it failed to obtain after the 2019 election. The Supreme Court decision came barely two months after APC won the governorship election in Bayelsa State, which hitherto had been a stronghold of the PDP.
Reacting to the verdict, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in a statement on Wednesday, said despite how unexpected and unpalatable that verdict might be, it was the final decision. He urged the ousted Ihedioha to take the judgment in good faith, even as he urged Nigerians not to give up in the face of the onslaught by anti- democratic forces.
“With regards to the judgment of the Supreme Court, which nullified the election of the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Emeka Ihedioha, as Governor of Imo state, I can only say that since the Supreme Court is final, we must accept its judgment, however unexpected and unpalatable it may be. The Rule of law must guide our paths even if logic sheds light on a different path,” Atiku said.
Also speaking a former governor of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa, said the judgment did not come to him as a surprise, but noted that there was no difference between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) because both parties had failed Nigerians.
“I am not surprised about the judgment. It has been given, so let move on. But for me, it does not make any difference; what is the difference between APC and PDP? They are both the same. These are parties that have failed Nigerians. The APC is in power, but what has changed”? Balarabe said.
The verdict may cause voter apathy in subsequent elections – Idayat Hassan
Idayat Hassan, director, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), said: “The Imo election has opened our eyes to the anomalies inherent in our electoral system. However said he was more worried about what the judgment is perceived by the citizens. It is not about how the judgment is arrived at, but the fact that the citizens trust in democracy is fast eroding, he warned.
“How many people can we explain or convince to participate in elections especially after what they saw during the general elections, Kogi and Bayelsa. I am more concern about the eroding trust in democracy by the citizens,” she said.
Reacting to the judgment, John Baiyesha, a senior advocate of Nigeria, said the judgment could have been arrived by the evidence provided before the Supreme Court judges, stressing that if the Presiding Officer of the polling units had not cancelled the results of the 388 polling units only a Court could do so.
Baiyesha urged Nigerians and political parties to learn to accept defeat just like they often celebrate victory, stressing that a similar thing happened in Zamfara State.
“You see, to ordinary people and ordinary mind they cannot understand how the person that came fourth in the governorship election would now become the winner,” he asked.
“But Based on the result shown now, it means that the APC candidate was actually supposed to be the first. But he was manipulated to the fourth, because results from 388 polling units show that he had more than two thousand votes, and if you add that to 98,000 which was initially recorded for him it means that he was the one who initially win that election.
“So, people may not understand you would have to go to the evidence provided and the law. People may not know this but you have to juxtapose this against the law.
“Those who know how to enjoy victory should also learn how to taste defeat. You may ask why I am talking like this; but look at Zamfara State case. It was a total removal of those who won the elections, including the governor, House of Assembly member; all of them. In a clean sweep, the Supreme Court threw them away and installed people who were defeated in the field of election.
“So the cry now I don’t understand. That is my view. I want to go by the evidence presented to the Supreme Court. I am not surprised by the judgment,” Baiyesha said.
But Yinka Odumakin the Publicity Secretary of the pan-Yoruba cultural group, Afenifere, wondered why a candidate who placed fourth in the gubernatorial election could be declared the winner. He expressed concern about the independence of the judiciary.
“The judgment is interesting, but I am more interested in the independence of the judiciary to save this democracy. How suddenly could someone that came fourth in the governorship election emerge the winner?
“When did the Supreme Court start counting votes? They have to explain the source of Mbaka’s prophecy about the judgement. Was it that he knew the outcome of the judgement?” Odumakin asked.
…APC lauds judgment
However, some members of the APC have hailed the verdict, saying it signalled hope for the party in other outstanding gubernatorial disputes.
James Ornguga, Benue State APC Publicity Secretary said: “That was a sound judgment. The judgment truly reflects what happened in Imo State and the case has gone a long way to expose the injustice melted to candidates who approach the Tribunal and even the Appeal Court seeking for justice.
“It is a very good signal because as we always tell people that given a free and fair election in Benue, APC will always win.”
Innocent Odoh, Solomon Ayado & James Kwen, Abuja, Ini Iwok, Lagos, Godfrey Ofurum & Saby Elemba, Owerri
