Imo; APC’s Uzodinma wins at Supreme Court guber election he lost at poll;INEC gets order against Gov Ihedioha

Imo APC guber candidate Hope Uzodinma has been declared winner of the March election in which he came a distant fourth, behind the PDP candidate Emeka Ihedioha whom INEC declared winner.

Uzodinma polled 96,458, but the Supreme Court nullified the election of Ihedioha who polled 273,404.

The seven-member panel of the apex court led by Chief Justice Tanko Muhammad gave the unanimous decision on Tuesday in Abuja.

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

Justice Kekere-Ekun said with the results from those polling units added,  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.

She then voided and set aside the declaration of Mr lhedioha as the winner of the 2019 governorship election.

In December, the court dismissed the appeal of the AA candidate Uche Nwosu’, who came second in the election with 190,364, because he was not a valid candidate, and he had withdrawn his suit.

The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Ifeanyi Ararume came third with 114, 676 while the latter polled 96,458.

Announcing the results of the election last year, the state’s returning officer and Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Umundike, Abia State, Francis Atunta, gave the total registered voters across the state’s 27 local government areas as 2,221,008 and the total accredited voters as 823,743.

He said a total of 25,130 votes were cancelled across the state with total valid votes as 714,355 while the total votes cast is 739,485.