Imo awaits Supreme Court verdict on Ihedioha’s review appeal

Barely minutes to the Supreme Court final judgement in the review appeal brought Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against Hope Uzodima of the All Progressives congress (APC), Owerri, the Imo state is in palpable tension.

Ihedioha and the PDP are asking the justices to review their 14 January judgement on the Imo governorship election which ousted Ihedioha and installed Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress.

The appellants claimed that the judgment was obtained by fraud and urged the seven-man panel headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammed to review the verdict in their favour.

Lawyer to Mr. Ihedioha, Chief Kanu Agabi, in his argument, claims that fraud is evident in the judgment, as the appellant, Hope Uzodinma, claimed he was excluded from 388 polling units but tendered results from only 366 polling units

He argued that the addition of votes from 388 polling units in favour of Senator Uzodinma exceeded the total number of accredited voters by 129,000 votes.

Countering the argument, Damian Dodo, lawyer to Senator Hope Uzodinma said the application to revisit, review or set aside the judgment of the court is an incompetent one lacking in merit.

He argued that the apex court lacks the jurisdiction to sit on appeal over any judgment delivered by the court except where cases of typographical errors or slips are noticed in the said judgment. In this case, no such errors have been established, he said.

Mr. Damian Dodo added that the appellant approached the apex court in the face of compelling evidence that Senator Hope Uzodinma won the election, and therefore asked the court to dismiss the application.