The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 14th January 2020 sacked Imo State Governor, Emeka Ihedioha from office and declared Senator Hope Uzodinma as the new Governor of the state.

The judgment has received rave reviews, mixed feelings, emotional and sentimental reactions from a cross section of Nigerians, largely based on their political inclinations.

The statement immediately issued by Ihedioha’s party, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, rubbishing the Supreme Court’s judgment, instead of accepting the verdict, is particularly instructive because it is very callous and misleading. This is because it paints the Honourable Apex Court in bad light and is capable of precipitating crisis, especially in Imo State.

The Law Court, and the Supreme Court for that matter, is not a place to play politics. The PDP statement is very unfortunate and one wonders if it should not have been vetted by the party’s lawyers before releasing it to media. A court of law relies on facts and evidences to arrive at its decisions and the Supreme Court did just that in the instant case, period!

The PDP cannot pick and choose court decisions in cases which favor their party to hail or deride the judiciary as the case may be. The recent case of Zamfara State which the Supreme Court nullified the election of the APC Governor and all lawmakers from the state in one fell swoop and declared the PDP candidate, Matawalle the validly elected governor is a case in point.

I am of the strong view that we must desist from this kind of pedestrian reaction to court decisions in order to enrich our body politic and the political understanding of the people and less enlightened political party followers. For instance, the people deserve to know the fundamental facts of the case, that is, how and why the Supreme Court declared Ihedioha who allegedly came a distant fourth in the said election the eventual winner of that election?

Let’s look at the nitty-gritty of the Supreme Court’s judgement which stemmed from the facts and evidences of Uzodinma’s appeal. Senator Uzodinma had contended that INEC unlawfully cancelled the results in 388 polling units where he he claimed to have won even after the Presiding Officers from the same INEC had declared him winner in those polling units.

He also contended that INEC lacked the power to nullify the election results after its own presiding officers had already declared victory in his favor in those same polling units, stressing that only an election tribunal or a court of competent jurisdiction had the power to do so. Legally, once results have been declared by a presiding officer, INEC is ceased of the power to cancel the results. It’s only an election petition tribunal or the courts that are vested with such powers.

Governor Uzodinma also posited that if the results from those polling units were calculated and added to the one that put him in the fourth position, he would have scored the highest number of valid votes cast to make him the rightful winner of the election and duly elected Governor of Imo state.

In the course of the matter, the new governor had tendered the result sheets for the controversial 388 polling units to prove his case incontrovertibly. It is often said that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands, so Uzodinma had come to the Temple  of Justice with not just his clean hands but clean documents as well!

However, neither did Ihedioha nor his party, the PDP produce any results before the court to counter Uzodinma’s claims. Also, INEC on its part, did not deny that those results were written by its own agents.

Furthermore, Governor Uzodinma also secured 25%  of the total votes cast in 2/3 of the local governments in Imo State as is constitutionally stipulated. Having also won the highest number of valid votes cast in the election, the argument by some PDP elements that the court ought to have declared at least a rerun election is an academic exercise dressed in the garments of sheer political sentiments that has no place in Law.