On Sunday, March 10, 2019, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Imo State acquiesced to Emeka’s greed for power and negotiated a governorship deal with him. Imo people from across political divides cried foul but the horse had bolted. Faced with the absurdity, 2019 governorship candidates of the various political parties had no other option than to approach the Court. Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, serial governorship contender and disputed governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); Ugwumba Uche Nwosu, governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (A.A) and Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) – now the duly elected Governor of Imo State – went to court. The tribunal turned out its judgement and favoured the negotiated Governor and usurper, ‘Malam’ Ihedioha. The matter went to the Court of Appeal where Uzodimma got a favourable minority judgement. Delivering the minority judgement, Justice Fredrick Oho of the Court of Appeal said: “All your reliefs are hereby granted and I hereby declare you the duly elected Governor of Imo State. And I put the cost of the action against the 1st (Ihedioha) and 2nd (PDP) respondents at N1m”.
The minority judgement that declared Uzodinma “the duly elected Governor of Imo State” was the turning point in the 2019 governorship election legal scrimmage. It opened a vista of possibility that Uzodimma’s case could find favour with the Supreme Court. At the Supreme Court, Uzodinma insisted that he had garnered 213,695 votes from 388 polling units and that they were wrongfully excluded. He said that ‘Malam’ Ihedioha was returned elected based on a wrongful computation of results from the 2,883 polling units. Expectedly, Uzodimma’s case found merit before the Supreme Court in its judgement of Tuesday, January 14, 2020. In the judgement delivered by revered Justice Motonmori Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun, the Supreme Court held that “there is merit in [Uzodimma’s] appeal” and that “The appeal is allowed”. The Court also set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal, saying: “The judgement of the lower Court affirming the judgement of the Governorship Election Tribunal is hereby set aside”.
The Supreme Court “ordered that votes due to the Appellants (i.e. Sen. Hope Uzodinma and All Progressives Congress) from the 388 polling units were wrongly excluded from the score ascribed to them”, and also “ordered that the Appellants’ votes from the 388 polling units (213,695) unlawfully excluded from the Appellants’ score shall be added to the results declared by the 3rd respondents”. With the new result from the new computation, the Supreme Court “declared that the 1st appellant, Senator Hope Uzodinma, polled a majority of lawful votes cast at the Governorship Election held in Imo State on 9th March, 2019 and satisfied the mandatory constitutional threshold and spread across the state”. The Supreme Court also ordered that “The Certificate of Return issued to the 1st respondent, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, is hereby withdrawn”, and ordered “that a Certificate of Return shall be issued to the 1st appellant, Senator Hope Uzodinma, forthwith and he should be sworn in as the Governor of Imo State immediately”.
Embittered, ‘Malam’ Ihedioha did not accept the landmark judgement of the Supreme Court in his stride. He quickly began his forum shopping antics, starting with sponsored mass protests, hoping to blackmail the Supreme Court into submission. He had earlier filed a Motion on Notice on the 10th January, 2020, asking the Supreme Court to strike out the appeal brought before it by Senator Uzodinma on the ground that the Supreme Court had in its judgement of December 20, 2019, held that the nomination of Uche Nwosu was invalid, null and void and in violation of section 37 of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended). In response to the poser presented before it, the Supreme Court answered that “the validity of the 1st appellant’s (Senator Hope Uzodinma’s) nomination as a candidate of the 2nd appellant (APC) for the governorship election in Imo State is a fresh issue raised for the first time in this court without leave. Furthermore, it is a pre-election matter, in respect of which this court lacks original jurisdiction to determine same within a post-election appeal. The application therefore fails and is accordingly dismissed”.
Having failed with earlier antics, Ihedioha tried another. He went back to the Supreme Court and asked for a review of the judgement, which fell flat like a park of cards, as the Supreme Court refused to be swayed by emotional outbursts. Since then the opposition has made several efforts to pull the State down. From overt and covert support for non-state actors to outright blackmail of Governor Hope Uzodimma, they appear not tired with their shenanigan. The latest antic is ‘Malam’ Ihedioha’s manufacturing and peddling of falsehod before unsuspecting Imo sons and Imo daughters resident abroad.
Ihedioha is trying so much to exhume and whitewash his soiled reputation as non-performer and usurper, but he can do that with decency. In his effort to brow beat intelligent Imo sons and daughters unrepentant Ihedioha failed to atone for the catastrophic failure his interregnum was. He threw caution to the wind and tried to splatter mud at “duly elected Governor” Hope Uzodimma. He lied to Imo people while speaking as Special Guest of Honour at an event in California, USA, that “statistics released in April this year, by the Debt Management Office, DMO, shows that the debt profile of Imo State has jumped to N205.19 billion, which means it has more than doubled from the level he brought down the huge debt profile he inherited from the previous administration”, said a report.
Emeka’s claim is not only false, diversionary and self serving, it was his continuous ploy to resuscitate his battered image as a conniving, pretentious liar. According to statistics from the DMO, by the time ‘Malam’ Ihedioha became so-called governor of Imo State, domestic debt profile of the State was N98b. As at June 30, 2019 – one month after he was thrust on Imo – the domestic debt climbed to N149b. By December 2019 – barely seven months before Ihedioha was righteously removed – the debt profile rose to over N164b. Let us assume without conceding, that Imo’s domestic debt profile rose from N164b to N205b in April 2022, but that is about N41b in over two years. Compare this to the geometric rise of Imo’s domestic debt profile from N98b to N164b in seven months – that is about N66BN – and you would know whether Ihedioha impoverished the State or not.
We must sympathise with Ihedioha, pity him and not crucify him. He wants to run for governorship in 2023/2024 and needs a lot of money to do that. How could he convince Imo sons and daughters abroad to give him money once more for his electoral jamboree except lie that he was prudent during his disgraceful stint as ‘governor’? He could not have told them how N19.6BN belonging to 27 LGAs of the State grew wings and flew into some person’s bank account in 7 months.
Ihedioha is a chronic forum shopper. That was what he was doing in far away USA. He was looking for opportunity to launder his soiled image and as pushback talk down on Governor Hope Uzodimma. Ihedioha had adopted the strategy of gracing burial and wedding ceremonies and waving to crowds that scorn him for poor performance – while his security detail slap people for attempting to come close perhaps to give him a piece of their mind. The other day he drove by a busy junction and held traffic to ransome because he felt snubbed. Despite protruding from the vehicle and flailing his arms to draw attention, no one gave a damn! His aides literally cajoled traders and cyclists to wave back so movement could resume.
The bottom is this: Mallam is a forum shopper and does not give a hoot about governance! He wants to retire to gubernatorial pension as he has no known means of legitimate livelihood. And the route he wants to follow is forum shopping and falsehood peddling.
