How PDP will retrieve Imo mandate in Supreme Court – Secondus reveals

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, on Wednesday, February 19, has said his party will retrieve its governorship mandate in Imo State at the Supreme Court.

Recall that, the Supreme Court had sacked the election of Hon Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party as Imo State Governor and declared Hope Uzodinma of the All progressives Congress, APC, as authentic governor of Imo State.

The apex court declared Hope Uzodinma of APC who came fourth as the winner of the March 9 governorship election in the state.

In the unanimous judgment of the seven-member panel, read by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the apex court agreed that results in 388 polling units were unlawfully excluded during the collation of the final governorship election result in Imo State.

Justice Kekere-Ekun said with the results from the 388 polling units added, Mr Uzodinma polled a majority of the lawful votes and ought to have been declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Also, the Supreme Court on Tuesday, February 18, had adjourned ruling on the application filed by ousted Imo State Governor Emeka Ihedioha, seeking to overturn an earlier decision of the apex court which removed him from office.

A panel of seven justices led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Mohammad, fixed March 2, 2020 for ruling on the matter.

This is to enable other processes required for the hearing of the case to be filed.

Chief Justice Tanko Mohammed who presided issued the order for adjournment following a request by Ihedioha’s lawyer Kanu Agabi.

Meanwhile, Secondus said there are several grounds upon which PDP is relying to ‘retrieve’ its mandate in Imo State.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, the PDP National Chairman expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would review and reverse the judgment which declared Hope Uzodinma the winner of the last governorship election in Imo State.

He insisted that the number of votes cast was higher than the number of accredited voters, adding that the apex court Justices were misled by the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Uzodinma.

Secondus alleged that Uzodinma and APC fraudulently obtained the verdict.

He said: “Both Uzodinma and the APC 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 are allowed to stay, then the total number of votes cast at the election will be more than the total number of voters accredited for the election. This cannot stay. We do not need to set a bad precedence.

“The number of voters accredited for the election was 823,743 while the total valid votes cast were 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 voters for the election.’’

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