The Supreme Court has dismissed the application filed by the sacked Governor of Imo State, Emeka Iheadioha which had asked the apex court to set aside it’s Jan 14, 2020 judgement that removed him from office.
The Panel, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Mohammed said there’s no provision in the constitution that empowers the Supreme Court to sit on an appeal over its own judgement.
It ruled that the finality of the Supreme Court is enshrined in the constitution.
Ihedioha and his party, the PDP had approached the Supreme Court to set aside its own judgement, which nullified his election on January 14.
In a motion filed by Ihedioha legal team headed by Kanu Agabi (SAN), the former Speaker of the House of Representatives asked the apex court set aside its judgment saying it was obtained by fraud by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Hope Uzodinma.
“The Appellants/Respondents (Uzodinma), fraudulently misled this court into holding that a total of 213,495 votes were unlawfully excluded from the votes scored by the 1st appellant/respondent in the gubernatorial election of March 9, 2019 in Imo State. The first appellant/Respondent admitted under cross-examination that he was the person (and not the third Respondent [INEC] or any of its officials) who computed the result that gave him the 213,495 votes alleged to have been excluded from his total votes in the election.”
But Uzodimma in his preliminary objection urged the court to strike it out the application by Ihedioha.
Countering the argument, Lawyer to Senator Hope Uzodinma, Damian Dodo said the application to revisit, review or set aside the judgment of the court is an incompetent one lacking in merit.
He argued further that the apex court lacks the jurisdiction to sit on appeal over any judgment delivered by the court except where cases of typographical errors or slips are noticed in the said judgment are established and in this case, no such errors have been established.
Dodo added that the appellant approached the apex court in the face of compelling evidence that Senator Hope Uzodinma won the election, and therefore asked the court to dismiss Ihedioha’s application.
It would be recalled that following the March 9, 2019 governorship election in Imo State the electoral umpire, INEC, declared Ihedioha elected. His rival of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hope Uzodinma, filed a petition in the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
Uzodinma lost at the Tribunal and at the Court of Appeal, but on a further appeal, the Supreme Court ousted Ihedioha and ordered that Uzodinma be sworn in immediately.
