How I became Imo State Governor – Hope Uzodinma

By Adesina Soyooye

“I chose not to accept defeat. The Supreme Court adopted the judgement that had more merit”

For the first time, Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has publicly spoken on how he became the Governor of Imo State on January 14, 2020.

Uzodinma was declared the duly elected Governor on that date by the Supreme Court in a ruling that is, often, described by not a few people as controversial.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared the Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the duly elected Governor of the State after the 2019 Governorship election in the State.

On May 29, 2019, Ihedioha was sworn-in as Governor. But seven months down the line, the Supreme Court stunned him when it sacked him from office, and in his place, declared Uzodinma duly elected Imo State Governor.

Since then, the Imo PDP has been inconsolable and has thrown all sorts at the Uzodinma APC Government. They hardly recognise his Government, and dubbed him the “Supreme Court Governor.”

Uzodinma, confident and sure-footed in the legality of his Government has, most of the time, maintained a studied silence. He refused to speak on the Supreme Court  ruling, and how he became the Governor, well, until now. And he couldn’t have chosen a better audience to do so.

Speaking at the All Nigerian Editors Conference, ANEC,   the largest congregation of Editors, which Imo State is host, Uzodinma told his story, the journey to his Governorship.

His words to the Editors on how his journey began.

“I recalled the inspiring words of Henry Ford that obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal. So I soldiered on with greater determination to recover my mandate.

“After a thorough and painstaking search to determine what actually happened, I discovered that the conspirators, inelegantly, excluded results from a total number of 388 polling units in which I got the highest number of votes from the final tally of the results announced by INEC.

“With the startling discovery, I approached the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Owerri to recognise the votes from the 388 polling units –  to add the votes to my result and, thereafter, declare me the validly elected governor of Imo State. This was after getting INEC to certify the results from these polling units as the true and original copies of the results in their custody.

“At the Tribunal, none of the Counsel to either INEC or PDP could contradict the results I tendered. The votes were consequently accepted by the Tribunal as exhibits  of the true and original copy of results from these 388 polling units.

“When the Tribunal eventually moved its judgement to Abuja, many believed that this was because the incumbent Governor who was the candidate of the PDP has lost the case. That appeared to be the only logical reason to move the judgement venue from Owerri to Abuja.

“But the unexpected happened as the Tribunal in an unwritten judgement affirmed his election as the Governor of Imo State.

“Was I discouraged or deterred by the verdict? NO. And this was partly because I remembered the wise counsel of Rodger Crawford, “that being challenged is inevitable, but being defeated is optional. So I chose not to accept defeat and I proceeded to the Court of Appeal.

“At the Appellate Court, there was a split judgement – a minority judgement which favoured me – that since the results from the 388 polling units were not contradicted, they were correct and were, therefore, the original copies of the results from those units.

“Based on that, the minority judgement declared that I validly won the Governorship election, therefore, that I should be declared winner.

“The case went all the way to the Supreme Court. At the Supreme Court, the justices examined the two judgements and adopted the one that had more merit and this was the minority judgement which favoured me.

“Consequently on January 14th, 2020, seven of the Justices of the Supreme Court in the panel unanimously nullified the election of the candidate of the PDP as Governor of Imo State and declared me the winner of the election held in 2019.

“I was, thereafter, sworn-in as the duly elected Governor of Imo State on the 15th of January 2020”