The National leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has said that the Supreme Court was misled in sacking Hon Emeka Ihedioha as the governor of Imo State.
National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, who stated this while speaking with newsmen in Abuja said that the PDP and Ihedioha would be presenting the facts before the judges at its resumed sitting of the matter in Abuja at the adjourned date March 2, this year.
Secondus stated that there were facts that were not presented before the apex court by the All Progressives Congress and its candidate, Senator Hope Uzodinma before the latter was declared the winner of the last governorship election in the state.
He pointed out that if the facts were presented before the justices, there was no way Ihedioha would have been sacked for Uzodinma by the apex court.
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He said the party and Ihedioha were not nursing any fears as to whether the Supreme Court would reverse itself on the decision taken, which was in favour of the APC and its candidate.
He said it was wrong for Uzodinma to claim that the time within which the court was permitted to entertain the case which emanated from election petition had passed.
Recall that Uzodinma had, through his lawyer, Damian Dodo (SAN), told journalists in Abuja on Sunday, that the Supreme Court no longer had the power to hear the application for the review of the January 14, 2020 judgment which sacked Ihedioha.
According to Secondus ‘‘we are not going to court for the sake of going there. Our returning to the court is based on justice. It has nothing to do with any technicalities or otherwise. We want the court to know that it was deceived to grant such a relief which was fraudulently obtained by those who asked that our governor be sacked
‘‘The justices of the Supreme Court are human beings. They could be misled and they were misled. The judgment that removed Ihedioha was fraudulently obtained as could be seen in the papers filed by our candidate at the Supreme Court
‘‘Both Uzodinma and the All Progressives Congress fraudulently misled the Supreme Court into believing that 213,495 votes were unlawfully excluded from the votes they scored in the governorship election, which was held on March 9, 2019
‘‘If the lies told the Supreme Court is allowed to stay, then the total number of votes cast at the election will be more than the total number of votes accredited for the election. This cannot stay. We do not need to set a bad precedent”.
He further argued that the number of voters accredited for the election was 823,743 while the total valid votes cast was 731,485.
‘‘Therefore, the inclusion of 213,695 votes for both the APC and Uzodinma would make the number of votes cast to be more than the number of accredited number of votes for the election,’’ Secondus argued.
A seven-man panel of the Supreme Court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, had in its January 14, 2020 judgement sacked Ihedioha as the governor of Imo State and declared Uzodinma as the winner of the last governorship election in the state.
Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, who read the lead judgment, had upheld the appeal filed by Uzodinma that the votes polled in 388 out of the 3,523 polling units were excluded in the final results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The court agreed with him and declared that the former senator emerged winner of the election after the addition of the excluded votes.
Meanwhile, Secondus had also said there was nothing to fear concerning the returning to the apex court by the APC on the governorship election in Bayelsa State.
He said the swearing-in of the PDP candidate in the governorship election in the state, Senator Douye Diri is final, adding that the APC and its candidate in the election, David Lyon ought to know that the ticket of Lyon and his running mate, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, was one.
According to him, ‘‘So, if one of the candidates, either the governorship or his running mate has issues with the law, both candidates will be affected because it is a joint ticket. That is elementary in politics”