Supreme Court affirms Gov. Uzodimma’s election, dismisses LP, PDP appeals
By Emma Ogbuehi
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the Imo State governorship election that produced Hope Uzodimma as the governor for a second term.
Last November, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Uzodimma, the then candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the November 11, 2023 governorship election in Imo State.
According to INEC, Uzodimma polled 540,308 votes to beat Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 71,503 votes; and Athan Achonu of Labour Party (LP) who secured 64,081 votes.
But the LP and PDP candidates had alleged irregularities in the polls and went ahead to contest the result at the Imo State Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja.
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Not satisfied with the tribunal ruling in Uzodimma’s favour, they approached the appeal court to upturn the earlier verdict.
Despite losing at the appellate court, they sought refuge in the Supreme Court to upturn the lower court’s verdict.
Hearing the case in Abuja, the apex court dismissed the two appeals filed by the Labour Party (LP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their governorship candidates challenging Uzodimma’s victory.
The appeals of the LP governorship candidate, Athan Achonu and that of PDP, Samuel Anyanwu, were dismissed for want of merit by the Supreme Court which consequently affirmed Uzodimma as a lawfully elected governor of Imo State.
In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Baba Idris, the LP and PDP gubernatorial candidates were said to have failed to establish allegations of over voting and other malpractices in the November 11, 2023 poll.
In a unanimous decision, the apex court upheld the earlier decisions of the Court of Appeal and that of the Imo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sat in Abuja and dismissed the petitions in their separate judgments.
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