The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has on Thursday, approached the Supreme Court with a fresh motion, seeking for the removal of the Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who was declared winner of the Governorship election by the Apex Court, all the way from his initial 4th position,
The Supreme Court is expected to fix a date for the hearing of the motion soon.
Already, the parties to the suit have filed additional processes in relation to the motion, and the PDP, through its Lawyer, Phillips Umeadi, recently filed a fresh document, requesting the Supreme Court to set a date for hearing.
Information at the Registry of the Court, revealed that the motion by the PDP, in which its praying the Supreme Court to reverse its decision sacking Emeka Ihedioha, is now ripe for hearing, because some processes were recently filed by some of the parties.
It was further gathered that the next step is for the Deputy Registrar (Litigation) to liaise with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, for a hearing date, which would soon be communicated to all parties.
Listed as Respondents to the motion on notice, filed by the PDP in an earlier appeal by Ugwumba Uche Nwosu, marked: SC/1384/2019, are Nwosu, the Action Peoples Party, APP, Uche Nnadi, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
It is PDP’s contention that it was wrong for the court to declare Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the winner of the March 9, 2019, Governorship election in Imo State, after disqualifying Nwosu from contesting the election, on the grounds that he allowed himself to be nominated as the Governorship Candidate of both the Action Alliance and APC, for the same election.
The PDP is also seeking the court’s order to declare that both the AA and APC did not sponsor any Candidate for the election, in view of Nwosu’s double nomination by the AA and APC, and his subsequent disqualification by the court in its judgment given on December 20, 2019.
The PDP also wants the Apex Court to order that Hope Uzodinma was not a Candidate by himself or of any political party at the election, and to order INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to him.
The party is equally praying the court to order INEC to issue a Certificate of Return to its Candidate in the election, Emeka Ihedioha, “as the duly elected Governor of Imo State, having scored the second highest number of votes in the said election, sequel to the judgment of this court in Appeal No: SC/1462/2019 – Senator Hope Uzodinma & another v. Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha & others delivered on 14th January, 2020”.
It is further praying the court to issue an order, directing that Ihedioha be immediately sworn-in as Governor of Imo State.
The grounds relied on by the PDP in seeking the reliefs, include that the court had in its December 20, 2019, judgement, found that the Nwosu was nominated by both APC and AA as their Candidate for election which held on 9th March, 2019, and conclusively held that he was disqualified by the provisions of Section 37 of the Electoral Act, for double nomination.
It stated that although Ihedioha was declared winner of the election and subsequently sworn-in, the Supreme Court in its judgement delivered on January 14, 2020, in the appeal marked: SC1462/2019, filed by Uzodinma, held that the Appellant, Uzodinma, and not Ihedioha, scored the highest number of votes in the election, and ought to be returned as the duly elected Governor.
The PDP added that by the clear terms of the Supreme Court judgement of December 20, 2019, in the appeal by Nwosu, it was obvious that neither the AA nor APC fielded any a Candidate for the said election, and as such, Uzodinma could not have been returned as the winner of the election, and as a Candidate of the APC.
More news later…
