Fred Itua, Abuja
Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing of an application, filed by the immediate-past Governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, an alliance of Civil Societies across the country, have called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed, to constitute a fresh Supreme Court to review its earlier judgment.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, Gentlemen of the Press, Livinus Ibiang, listed a number of demands, which he said the Supreme Court should consider.
Last month, Ihedioha was sacked by the Supreme Court as they valid Governor of Imo State. Senator Hope Uzodinma, who came a distant 4th position, was named as the authentic winner of the polls.
Unsatisfied by the development, Ihedioha and his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have been pushing for a reversal of the judgment.
Speaking on the issue , Ibiang said: “A new panel should look into the review. The Court owes Imolites and Nigerians in general the clarity as to what happened to the votes of the PDP and other parties in the 388 units tendered by the APC and its candidate.
”The Court of Appeal had earlier dismissed the petition of Senator Hope Uzodinma as incompetent and struck it out. However, the Supreme Court did not consider the appeal of Hope Uzodinma on this point and so the judgement of the Court of Appeal dismissing the petition still stands or subsists. There was therefore no basis for the Supreme Court to pronounce on the Appeal and declare Hope Uzodinma, elected.
“The judgment was delivered without jurisdiction in that by virtue of S.140(2) of the Electoral Act, once the Court says that the election was invalid, the only possible judgement the Court is allowed to give is a nullification of the election, and not to declare Hope Uzodinma, winner.
“There was no proof before the Court nor did the Supreme Court state how it arrived at the declaration that Hope Uzodinma met the constitutionally required geographical spread. To meet this requirement, the Supreme Court ought to state the scores and percentages of all the 70 candidates that contested the election, Local Government by Local Government. This was not done by the Supreme Court and therefore had no basis and jurisdiction to declare Hope Uzodinma winner of the election.
“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 his votes. The fraud was further orchestrated by the fact that the total votes cast was more than the number of voters accredited to vote. The fraud was further demonstrated by the document tendered by INEC (FORM EC40G) which clearly showed that there were no valid elections in the disputed 388 polling units.
“The judgement was a nullity because it was given per incuriam, which means that the Supreme Court did not advert its attention to some existing laws and facts even on the face of the proceedings.
It is no longer news that there was a judicial Tsunami when the apex court on January 14, 2020 controversially nullified the election of Mr. Emeka Ihedioha as the lawfully elected governor of Imo state.
“Since that curious judgment, Nigerians from all walks of life, irrespective of political and religious persuasion have voiced concern over that miscarriage of justice.”