Imo Gov’ship judgment’s review: Gov Uzodinma, Ihedioha know fate today

.As anxiety grips Imo indigenes, supporters, political leaders

.S’Court adjourns Zamfara APC’s case to March 17

The Supreme Court will today determine the application filed by Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking a review of its earlier judgment delivered on January 14, 2020.

The application which is for hearing and possible determination today was earlier slated for hearing on Monday but it could not hold due to the late service of some processes by the parties.

At the hearing resumed on Monday, anxiety mounted amidst the supporters and leaders of political parties and indegenes of Imo State as no one is sure who the judgment will favour.

The audience in Court room easily felt the anxiety as palpable fear griped the national chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and some other officials of Uzodinma administration and the former officials of Ihedioha government as they paced about the court before the court resumed.

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It was a relieve as counsel to the respondent/applicant, Mr. Kanu Agabi (SAN), informed the court that he was served with a process on Monday morning in the court room by Governor Hope Uzordinma counsel, Damian Dodo (SAN).

Agabi (SAN) told the Court that he needed time to respond to the process. He therefore pleaded with the court to allow them come back today (Tuesday, March 3) for the hearing of the application.

In his response, the Respondent/Appellant counsel, Damian Dodo (SAN), explained that he was served with the applicants processes on Friday and that the earliest possible time for him to respond to it was Monday morning.

He added that he was ready for the hearing and that the matter should proceed.

Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), T.M. Inuwa (SAN), also told the Court that his team is ready and the matter should go on.

But in a brief ruling, presiding justice and Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, adjourned the matter till today to enable the applicants reply to the Respondent/Appellants process.

The Daily Times recalls that the application which first came up for hearing on February 18, 2020 was adjourned to March 2, 2020 because as at that date the parties complained that processes were still coming in.

Mr. Agabi (SAN) and his client, Emeka Ihedioha, in their final address are insisting that the judgment of the apex court on Imo governorship election was obtained by fraud and that their case is different from Bayelsa State Governorship election judgment review applications that attracted a fine of N60 million against the applicants.

“In this case, a man who himself branded the election in which he participated as invalid has been adjudged by your Lordships as the winner of the same election. That is in the face of past and innumerable decisions by your Lordships that if such a ground succeeded it should lead to the nullification of the election.

“In this case, the man you declared as winner of the election specifically prayed that your Lordships should nullify the result of elections in the entire state and that your Lordships order that a fresh election be conducted.

“Your Lordships also declared as winner a man who prayed your Lordships to order a re-run election in all the 388 polling units where elections and results were cancelled or not declared.

“Your Lordships ordered victory for a man who admitted under cross examination that in polling unit after polling unit, he awarded to himself more votes than the total number of registered voters in those polling units.

“Your Lordships accepted votes from 388 polling units presented by the 1st Respondent which had the consequence of swelling-up the total number of votes scored in the election way beyond the total number of accredited voters. The excess votes between the total votes scored and the total accredited voters are 129,340 votes – a clearly impossible situation and brazen illegality under our electoral law. (Underlining supplied)

“Your Lordships declared the 1st Respondent as winner of the election when your Lordships did not satisfy yourselves that the 1st Respondent scored enough votes across the various local government areas of Imo State to satisfy the geographical spread as decreed by the Constitution.

“Based on the foregoing, we submit that the judgment delivered by this Honourable Court on 14th January 2020 in Appeal No. SC.1462/2019 and Cross Appeal No. SC.1470/2019 is a nullity because –

The judgment was delivered without jurisdiction in that the court declared the 1st Respondent as the winner of the election contrary to section 140 (1) and (2) of the Electoral Act (as amended).

“The judgment is unconstitutional in that it declared the 1st Respondent the winner of the election without proof that the votes accredited to him met the geographical spread stipulated in section 179 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

“The judgment was obtained by fraud in that the votes upon which the 1st Respondent was declared as the winner of the election were in excess of the number of voters accredited for the election.

“The judgment was given per incuriam as your lordships by this judgment unwittingly sanctioned that total votes cast at an election can be in excess of the total number of accredited voters, as in this case, the total votes exceeded the total accredited voters by 129,340 votes.

“Furthermore, the judgment was given per incuriam in view of the 1st Respondent’s contention that the election was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) whereupon he prayed that a supplementary election should be held in the 388 disputed polling units where he claimed his votes were cancelled.

They therefore respectfully urge your Lordships to set aside the judgment in Appeal No. SC.1462/2019 and Cross Appeal No. SC.1470/2019 as prayed in our motion paper because as this Honourable Court rightly noted in ADEGOKE MOTORS v. ADESANYA (supra) “it is far better to admit an error than to preserve an error”.

On his part, the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, is asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the application filed by former Governor Emeka Ihedioha for lack of jurisdiction.

In the preliminary objection, Uzodinma’s application attacked  the competence of motion dated 5th February, 2020, filed by the Respondents/Applicants (Ihedioha and PDP), wherein they prayed the Supreme Court  for an order setting aside “as a nullity the judgment delivered by it on the 14th of January, 2020 in Appeal No. SC.1462/ 2019 and Cross-Appeal No. SC.147Y0/ 2019.

Uzodimma and APC’s preliminary objection dated February, 6, 2020 was brought pursuant to Section 6(6)(a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.

The motion raised and argued the competence of Ihedioha’s motion and the jurisdiction of the court to entertain same. Uzodinma and his party, the APC vehemently opposed Ihedioha application for a review and urged the apex court to strike out the motion.

The appellants/respondents/objectors (Uzodimma and APC) through their counsel, Damian Dodo, predicated their objection on the grounds that: “The appIication being a proceeding relating to or arising from election of a governor is barred by effluxion of time.

“The application constitutes an invitation to the Supreme Court to sit on appeal over its final decision,” Uzodimma posited.

The objectors submitted that: “Having delivered its final decision on the 1st and 2nd Respondents’ Appeal No. SC. 1462/2019 between Senator Hope Uzodinma & Anor v Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha & 2 Ors., the Supreme Court has become fuctus officio and divested of jurisdiction over the same subject matter”.

“Order 8 Rule 16 of the Supreme Court Rules 2014 prohibits this Honourable Court from reviewing its judgment once given and delivered, save to correct clerical mistakes or accidental slip.

“The judgment sought to be set aside having been given effect by the inauguration of the 1st Respondent/Objector as Governor of Imo State, this Honourable Court lacks the jurisdiction to grant the prayer sought,” Uzodimma argued.

More so, Uzodimma stated that Ihedioha’s application “constitutes an abuse of court process” and “is against public policy”.

He added that the application filed by the ousted governor amounts to an invitation to the Court to indulge in academic exercise and answer hypothetical questions.

Recall that after the March 9, 2019 gubernatorial election in Imo state, the INEC had declared Rt Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as winner of the poll.

Aggrieved by the declaration of Ihedioha by the INEC as winner of the governorship election, Uzodimma and APC challenged the said declaration by way of a petition.

The litigation that ensued from the petition ultimately led to the appeal by Uzodimma and APC against the decision of the Court of Appeal which by majority decision dismissed their appeal against the decision of the Election Tribunal to apex court.

A seven man panel of Justices of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, who on January 14, 2020 relieved Emeka Ihedioha of the post of governor of Imo State, is hearing the application.

The Supreme Court had in the judgment declared Senator Hope Uzodinma, the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of the Governorship election held on March 9, 2019.

In a related development, the application filed by a faction of All Progressives Congress (APC) led by former Governor of Zamfara State, Abdul’aziz Yari, challenging the May 24, 2019 judgment of the Supreme Court again ran into a hitch on Monday.

The Supreme Court which on February 18, 2020 could not hear the application was forced on Monday to adjourn till March 17.

Yari’s faction of the APC in the state is specifically seeking a review of the judgment of the Apex Court that voided the participation of all the candidates of the APC in March 9, 2019 general election in Zamfara State.

When the matter was mentioned for hearing on Monday, the presiding justice and Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, noted that the 141 to 178 applicants/respondents were not served with hearing notice.

Counsel to the applicants, Chief Robert Clarke (SAN), told the court that his clerk has served all the parties.

Then the court asked him who gave the order to serve the process which are normally served by the bailiff of the court. The court also wanted to know why the respondents’ addresses for service was not stated in the process that was filed. It observed that the process itself was incompetent by the omission.

However, the court adjourned the matter till March 17, 2020 for the applicants to do what they think are necessary.