On Imo, a Final Word! -By Olusegun Adeniyi

The Supreme Court drew a final curtain on the Imo State gubernatorial contest on Tuesday by affirming their earlier judgement which conferred victory on Chief Hope Uzodinma who came fourth at the election held last year. While the ousted Governor, Hon Emeka Ihedioha, must now accept his fate, he can take comfort in the words of Justice Centus Nweze who was not part of the initial panel of seven but was brought in to replace Justice Amiru Sanusi who retired a few days after the judgement on 14th January.

In his dissenting judgement on Tuesday, Justice Nweze affirmed what we have all been saying: “There were over 129,340 votes in excess of accredited voters. The court can redeem its image by setting aside its judgment. If not, this will continue to haunt our electoral jurisprudence. It is awkward and embarrassing to the court. He (Hope Uzodinma) misled the court. When the appellant presented his table of exhibit, he mischievously excluded the votes of others and the court declared him winner. I am of the firm view that this court should set aside the initial judgment and restore the judgment of the lower court.”

That, unfortunately, did not happen. Meanwhile, what I find rather unfortunate in the matter is the division along partisan lines. For me, this is not, and has never been, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) versus All Progressives Congress (APC) matter. It is about justice. In any case, from the record at my disposal, based on the 121 Certificates of Returns withdrawn by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), no political party has benefitted from the courts as much as the PDP, in terms of reaping electoral gains where they did not sow. If APC therefore has power over the courts, I am sure they would prefer to have the two states (Zamfara and Bayelsa) they won last year and concede one (Imo) that they lost. So, we have to look beyond party politics to situate the injustice foisted on the people of Imo State by the Supreme Court. It is about whether the testimony of a single police officer can be more credible than that of all the INEC officials who conducted the gubernatorial election and the fact that the figures on which the judgement was based do not add up.

However, whatever may be our dissatisfaction with the judgement, the Supreme Court has the final word and there is nothing anybody can do about that. But as the National Assembly reviews the Constitution and the Electoral Act, there must be lessons to take away from the Imo debacle. In the interest of our democracy, this sort of thing should never happen again!