The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, deferred till December 5, hearing of an appeal that is seeking to invalidate the years that Senator Hope Uzodinma spent in office as the Governor of Imo state.
Though the appeal, which has stayed over three years in the docket of the apex court, was initially fixed for hearing on Tuesday, however, the proceeding could not hold.
Officials of the court merely informed the parties that the hearing had been postponed till the new date.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, had in the application, sought the removal of Governor Uzodinma from office.
APGA contended that there ought to have been a fresh election in the state after the apex court nullified the election of Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The party noted that the apex court had before Ihedioha’s election was voided, in a separate judgement, declared that Uche Nwosu who came second at the governorship poll that held in 2019, had dual nominations.
The apex court had held that Nwosu allowed himself to be nominated by both the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Action Alliance, AA.
APGA, whose candidate came third in the election, had while Nwosu’s appeal was pending before the Supreme Court, brought an application to be joined as an interested party in the matter.
It equally filed an application for an order, directing the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct a fresh election in Imo State within 90 days.
According to the party, a fresh election was necessary since in the eyes of the law, Imo State has no duly and validly elected governor, going by two judgments of the apex court in appeals number SC/1384/2019 and SC/1462/2019.
It will be recalled that the apex court had in the first appeal, held that Nwosu contested and won the primaries conducted by the APC on October 6, 2018, and his name forwarded to INEC as APC’s candidate for the March 9, 2019 governorship election in Imo State.
It, however, voided his nomination on the premise that he “knowingly allowed himself to be nominated as the gubernatorial candidate of two political parties.”
The apex court held that by Section 37 of the Electoral Act 2010, his nomination was invalid.
