Imo Governorship Poll: Uzodinma Asks Tribunal to Nullify Ihedioha’s Election, Declare Him Winner

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 9, 2019 Imo State election, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has asked the Imo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to nullify the declaration of Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the poll.

In his petition, Uzodinma urged the tribunal to declare him duly elected governor, arguing that he secured the majority of lawful votes cast and satisfied the constitutional requirements relating to geographical spread across the state.

The APC candidate alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) excluded votes cast for him in several polling units, thereby giving Ihedioha an unfair advantage in the final result.

According to the petition, a proper computation of valid votes from the affected polling units would show that Uzodinma defeated the PDP candidate by a substantial margin.

Uzodinma alleged that the problem occurred during the collation of results at ward, local government and state levels, where he claimed INEC incorrectly recorded Ihedioha’s votes while excluding results from polling units in which the APC performed strongly.

The petition also accused INEC of unlawfully crediting the PDP candidate with votes arising from alleged over-voting in polling units in Aboh Mbaise, Ezinihitte Mbaise and Ahiazu Mbaise local government areas.

Uzodinma further alleged that the conduct of the election did not substantially comply with the Electoral Act 2010 and INEC’s guidelines for the 2019 general elections.

He also claimed that some individuals recruited as collation and returning officers were relatives or associates of Ihedioha, alleging that this compromised the neutrality of the electoral process.

INEC had officially credited Uzodinma with 96,458 votes in the election.

The APC candidate, however, maintained in his petition that after including votes he alleged were wrongly excluded, his actual valid vote total should have been 310,458.

Uzodinma and the APC therefore asked the tribunal to declare him the lawful winner of the governorship election and order that he be returned as governor.

Alternatively, they requested that the tribunal nullify the March 9 governorship election in Imo State and direct INEC to conduct a fresh election.