The hearing of former governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha’s application seeking the review of the January 14, 2020 judgment which sacked him as Imo State governor and installed Hope Uzodinma as his replacement by the Supreme Court, which began on Tuesday, February 18, has been adjourned till March 2.
The hearing was adjourned after Ihedioha’s lawyer, Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN, a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, informed the seven-man panel of the Supreme Court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Tanko Muhammad, that the court that processes were still being filed.
He said, “My lords, processes are still coming in. Up till this morning, we were still receiving processes. We, therefore, apply for an adjournment to enable all the processes to come in.”
Counsel to Uzodinma and the All Progressives Congress, APC, Damian Dodo, SAN and Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Taminu Inuwa, SAN, however did not oppose the application for adjournment.
A seven-man panel of the Supreme Court headed by the CJN, Muhammad, in a unanimous decision, had on January 14, in a ruling, removed Ihedioha as the Imo State governor and declared Uzodinma as the winner of the last governorship election in the state.
Reading the lead and unanimous judgment, Justice Kekere-Ekun, had upheld Uzodinma’s appeal, ruling that the votes polled in 388 out of the 3,523 polling units were excluded in the final results declared by INEC in the state.
The apex court held that Uzodinma emerged winner of the election after the addition of the excluded votes.
However, Ihedioha, through his lead counsel, Chief Agabi (SAN), on February 5, filed an application before the court seeking “an order setting aside as a nullity” the January 14 judgment.
