Austin Uganwa
The Supreme Court decision to revisit its controversial judgment on Imo governorship petition slated for Tuesday, February 18, is largely cheering and reassuring. With the apex court’s preparedness to hear the fresh application filed by Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, history now beckons the Supreme Court to use the opportunity offered by this new development to save the judiciary, democracy and the good people of Imo State. This is because the hearing will provide a veritable space for the apex court to judiciously correct the injustice and fraud inherent in the judgment. In so doing, the judiciary that has suffered lasting public vilification and scorn and loss of integrity as a consequence of the miscarriage of justice will be pacified.
And with this, the good people of Imo who on March 9, 2019, bequeathed Ihedioha their collective mandate to be at the helm of Imo affairs, would heave a huge sigh of relief, given the enormous benefits that attended Ihedioha’s eight months in the saddle. Besides, the apex court would succeed in restoring confidence in the nation’s fledgling democratic system.
In this realisation, the extent to which the Justice Tanko Mohammed-led apex court will be recorded on the good side of history will be greatly dependent on the courageous and audacious manner it moves from Tuesday to correct the injustice in the Imo judgment. It is yet to be seen why the apex court will miss this golden opportunity it can leverage on to make history.
Since the process of filing the application was finalised and hearing date fixed, Imo has ostensibly stood still. In drinking joints, inside commuter transport and other public places such as parks, bus stops and even churches, the matter has dominated discussions. The prevailing and sustained feeling is that the apex court will do the right thing by amending the mistake that has been made, by restoring Ihedioha as governor. The Imo government circle that has been experiencing stillness since the exit of Ihedioha has consequently gone deeper into coma over fear of impending judgment reversal. Activities perceptibly have slowed down in Owerri, the Imo State capital. The once boisterous city has been a shadow of itself in the last one month.
However, not a few Supreme Court justices have at various times underscored the fact that judgment review is proper and rooted in law. Justice Chukwudifu Oputa of blessed memory, while ruling on a case involving Adegoke Motors and Adesanya, in 1986, submitted: “The court can do incalculable harm through its mistakes. When, therefore, it appears to learned counsel that any decision of this court has been given incuriam, such counsel should have the boldness and courage to ask that such a decision be overruled.”
Similarly, Justice Abba Aji, while delivering judgment in a matter involving Stanbic IBTC Bank and LGC Ltd, affirmed that the apex court has the authority to vacate its decision. Some of the fundamental grounds on which the apex court can actually do that, according to him, include: where any of the parties obtained judgment by fraud or deceit and where the court was misled into giving the decision. Besides, where there is a critical mistake in the judgment and where there is error arising from an accidental omission. The enumerated grounds apparently lie at the heart of Ihedioha’s application.
The hearing considerably is coming in good time, 13 days after Ihedioha filed the application. It is instructive that the apex court may have adhered to Ihedioha’s plea for accelerated hearing. This is indeed another welcome development, given its propensity to redress the widespread maxim that justice delayed is justice denied. Kanu Agabi, former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, heads the Ihedioha legal team, made of 29 other lawyers, many of whom are reportedly offering voluntary service in a show of solidarity over the injustice. The crux of the application they meticulously put together is that the declaration of Uzodinma as Imo State governor on January 14 is a nullity given that he deceived the court to obtain a fraudulent judgment. The team provided evidence-based and unassailable reasons in substantiation of the position.
Part of the filed application drove this reality home vividly. It contained: “The judgment was a nullity having been obtained by fraud or deceit in that Hope Uzodinma fraudulently misled the Supreme Court into holding that a total of 213,495 were unlawfully excluded from the votes.”
They are right. The document submitted by Uzodinma, which the apex court latched on to rule, was imbued with lots of forgeries, a ruling that catapulted him abnormally from the fourth to the first position. An appraisal of the tabulated document that Uzodinma used to obtain the votes from the court shows present, implicit and intrinsic dubious scenarios. For instance, Number 69 of the certified true copy of Uzodinma’s document indicated that, whereas the number of the registered voters in the polling unit under review was 492, APC was recorded 819 votes, PDP 7, showing a fraudulent mark up of 334 votes. The same pattern of forgery like thread ran through the entire document. Instances abound on numbers 377, 282, 285 and a host of others where the number of votes recorded far surpassed the number of registered voters
Another unpardonable flaw was that the tabulated document didn’t have column for accredited voters, which is largely unlawful. The sad reality was that, with the additional votes approved by the apex court, the total votes cast during the Imo governorship election curiously came to 953,083, overshooting the 823,743 accredited voters by 129,340, which is another huge illegality. The mystery document forwarded by Uzodinma didn’t have columns and votes for other governorship candidates. This is in spite of the fact that about 70 political parties took part in the election. The strange document thus reduced Nigeria into a two-party system by recognising only the APC and PDP.
These nullities evidently constitute key pegs of Ihedioha’s application. This explains why the apex court has a date with history and posterity, starting from February 18, towards ensuring that the injustice capable of consuming our pride as a nation does not stand. Nigerians and indeed the international community are watching with keen interest.
•Dr. Uganwa writes from Owerri