The Supreme Court has sacked Governor Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hope Uzordinma as the winner of the Imo State Gubernatorial election.
The apex court declared that the votes due to Senator Uzodinma was unlawfully excluded from the 318 polling units and be added to his votes.
In a unanimous decision by the 7 man panel delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the submissions of a Principal witness who was on a subpoena to present results held that the lower court was wrong in its ruling.
In the Judgment delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the court accordingly ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Ihedioha and issued a fresh Certificate of Return to the candidate of the APC in grounds that he won the majority of lawful votes cast at the election.
In the result declared by INEC, Ihedioha of the PDP got 273,404 votes to defeat his closest rival, Uche Nwosu of the Action Alliance, AA, who polled 190,364 votes, while Senators Ifeanyi Ararume and Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and All Progressives Congress (APC) got 114, 676 and 96,458 votes respectively.
