By Gideon Njoku
In a viral video, a former Governor of Imo State,who was, also a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, The Rt. Honourable Emeka Ihedioha, has cited his removal from office, as Governor, as one of the reasons for what he called palpable anger and agitations in the South-east.
“A man won an election. Unjustifiably, you took him out. That couldn’t have happened in a pure democratic setting. And so there is palpable anger in the land. There is frustration. And so that is what has given rise to a movement, given rise to frustration.”
But in another viral post, the All Progressives Congress, APC, has quoted a relevant section of the Supreme Court judgement which removed Ihedioha from office, as a way of telling him that no injustice was done to him.
Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was, in 2019, declared the duly elected Governor of Imo State. He was sworn-in on May 29, 2019.
But seven months into his Government, the Supreme Court removed him from office, and declared Senator Hope Uzodinma of the APC as the duly elected Governor. The SC cited over 300,000 votes that it said were deliberately not added to Uzodinma’s votes.
While lamenting the root cause of agitations in the South-east, Ihedioha said the APC Government completely excluded the South-east from every aspect of governance and that the exclusion was enough to trigger the agitations.
His words: “In the South-east, there are agitations borne out of frustration that the APC administration kept the South-east out of governance. And, I mean, it is just very natural that our people should exhibit, show their frustration.
“A man won an election. Unjustifiably you took him out. That couldn’t have happened in a pure democratic setting.
“And so there is palpable anger in the land. There is frustration. And so, that is what has given rise to a movement, given rise to frustration.”
But the APC, obviously, in response, has posted a relevant aspect of the Supreme Court judgement which removed Ihedioha from office.
The portion reads:
“Vote due to the appellant Senator Hope Uzodinma and the APC from 388 Polling Units were wrongly excluded from scores ascribed to the appellant(to them),” the justices ruled.
“It is thereby ordered that the appellant votes from 388 Polling Units unlawfully excluded from the appellant vote declared shall be added and that the first respondent, Emeka Ihedioha, was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast at the said election.”
“His return as the elected governor of Imo State is hereby declared null and void and accordingly set aside.”
“It is hereby declared that the first appellant (Mr Uzodinma) holds the majority of lawful votes cast at the governorship election held in Imo State on March 9, 2019.”
“It is hereby declared that first appellant, Senator Hope Uzodinma, is the winner of the governorship of Imo State held on March 9, 2019.
“The certificate issued to the first defendant (Mr Ihedioha) is hereby withdrawn.
“It is hereby ordered that the certificate of return shall be issued to the first appellant, Senator Hope Uzodinma, forthwith and he should be sworn in as the governor of Imo State.”
In the past three years and counting, the South-east has been ravaged by, atimes, violent agitations by, mostly, youths which have cost loss of lives, and have grounded the economy of the region to zero, almost.
