The supreme court of Nigeria is set to give judgement on the matter brought before it by Chief Philip Umeadi, SAN.
Umeadi a former INEC commissioner and an established legal luminary, as law abiding citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is praying the apex court to enforce its judgement on Ugwumba Uche Nwosu on December 20, 2019.
According to the application by Umeadi, the supreme court had on December 20, 2019, ruled that the APC had no candidate in the March 9, 2019 governorship election in Imo State. As the applicant noted, the highest court in the land had ruled that the authentic candidate of APC in the state for the governorship election was Nwosu, but for the fact he abandoned that mandate for AA’s nomination means it was regarded as double nominations which is against INEC and electoral act’s rules and regulations. For that, he stood disqualified. In the eyes of the law, as submitted by Umeadi, therefore, Governor Hope Uzodimma was never the candidate of APC and so is not recognized by law.
The applicant’s argument is that, in the absence of the APC and AA candidates, the PDP candidate, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, got the highest number of votes in the election and should therefore be declared the winner and returned as governor.
However, there are strong indications that the case is causing ripples in the seat of power in Abuja. Inside sources explained that the date for the matter to be adjudicated is being delayed because of high wired interests strewn around the case.
For instance, while most people involved in the case agree that it has merit and so let justice, fairness, legality and constitutionalism take their leadway as a way of strengthening the country ‘s democratic processes and procedures, others who are mainly concerned about party politics and 2023 are more favourably disposed to applying a political undertone to it.
In view of the above, the latter group is calling on the sentiments of APC big shots in Abuja, reminding them of the fact that with the victory of PDP in Edo, the APC has lost the entire South -South zone, and if, for the sake of justice and constitutionalism, Uzodimma is booted out in Imo State, it means that APC is no longer a truly ruling party, as it would have lost governorship control in the South South and South East zones.
Investigations conducted by this newspaper revealed that the power brokers in the seat of power are really looking towards the side of this latter group who are only concerned about party and 2023 politics but at the same time, the oligarch have yet to fully support those who are clamouring for justice to be administered on the matter.
The usually reliable source enthused that those two forces are running helter scatter, trying to “influence” the panel of judges that will handle the case on the day.
While the purists, according to News Echo checks, are angling for a fresh panel of judges to handle the matter, the party loyalists are inclined to the judges that sat on the Imo State matter on January 14, 2020, to be in charge once again.
It is gathered that the moment the constitution of panel of judges is settled, the date for the case will be announced.
