Except there is any last-minute change, the former governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha will on Monday approach Nigerian Supreme Court to review its judgment that sacked him from office.
The Supreme court had on January 14, 2020 removed Ihedioha of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the governor and declared Senator Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the governor of Imo State.
The unanimous judgment of the court which was delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun had since raised dust following the outcry and condemnation that trailed it.
According to The Sun, the legal team of the sacked governor has already prepared its legal documents that will be filed at the Registry of the apex court.
In support of this move, a coalition of civil society groups on Sunday, picked holes in the judgment of the Supreme Court while calling on the former Imo governor, Ihedioha, to approach the Supreme Court to correct the patent errors in their judgment to ensure that Justice is not only done but is manifestly seen to have been done.
The groups, further urged the Supreme Court “to take courage and recall the Imo state governorship matter to correct the error and restore Justice, peace, hope and faith in our democracy so as to regain the confidence of the Nigerian people.”
Dr. Manzo Abubakar of the Abuja Discussion Group who read the press statement on behalf of the coalition of the civil society groups added that the Supreme Court was left with no option than to review and reverse this anomaly, even if it means applying a Judicial Doctrine of Necessity. The confidence of Nigerians in the judiciary is at the lowest, and we believe that the Supreme Court can help to restore it and save the future elections.
“This is the time to apply the famous dictum: ‘Justice must be rooted in confidence and confidence is destroyed when right-minded people go away thinking: the judge is biased.’
“The Supreme Court is supreme and can creatively reinvent its own rules to do justice. It is necessary to do so now than ever to save Nigerian democracy, constitutionalism and retrieve the judicial and justice system from its present opprobrium.”
Other civil society groups at the press conference were Transparency Centre Network led by Comrade Umar Farouk, Movement for the Protection of People’s Rights; Baba Nagari, Coalition for Good Governance and Accountability; Adams Otakwe, Network for Freedom and Defence of Democracy; Musa Abdullahi, Centre for Human Rights and Justice; Bassey Ewa, Human Rights and Accountability Project; Comrade Paul Baba Ali, Rights Monitoring Network; Queen Onwughalu, Association of African Writers on Human and People Rights , (AFRIRIGHTS) and Lucy Oparago, Youths for Electoral Transparency (YFET).
The rest were Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA); Ariyo-Dare Atoye, Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy and Constitution; Deji Adeyanju, Concerned Nigerians; Alex Obisesan, Adopt a Goal Initiative and Raphael Adebayo, Free Nigeria Coalition.
The groups further alleged that facts before them indicate that the Supreme Court failed to do foul-proof mathematical computation of the results of votes cast at the election, but relied only on the data personally compiled and submitted by Sen. Hope Uzodinma to declare him duly-elected governor of Imo State.