By Gideon Njoku
For Uche Nwosu the disastrous sealing of his fate in the 2019 Governorship election couldn’t have come on a more symbolic day.
The Supreme Court, Friday, voided his candidacy in the 2019 Governorship election. The court said he had the Governorship ticket of both the All Progressives Congress, APC and that of the Action Alliance, AA. And declared it illegal.
For the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the Governor of the state, The Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, the verdict killed two birds for them with one stone.
It not only removed Nwosu from the scene, it has, also, put a question mark on the APC governorship ticket given to Senator Hope Uzodinma with which he is also in the Supreme Court challenging Ihedioha’s victory. Since the Supreme Court declared that Nwosu had the APC governorship ticket, it means that Uzodinma had no ticket, and couldn’t have been the APC candidate. Meaning: his candidature is also illegal.
Nwosu, son-in-law to the immediate past governor, Rochas Okorocha, was the Governorship candidate of the AA, or so he thought.
He had decamped from the APC to the AA, a party Okorocha, allegedly, founded, and funded even as an APC governor.
Nwosu, without a sweat, appropriated the AA governorship ticket to himself, when the APC shocked him and his father-in-law by denying him the Governorship ticket. But it was to the outrage of some AA members.
Backed by Okorocha, he contested the election against other candidates, including the winner, the PDP’s Ihedioha.
But along with others – notably, Uzodinma and Senator Ararume of the AA and APGA, respectively – he wouldn’t give up.
And even though he won more LGAs than the others – six in all – the Court says he had no case; that his case was at best, watery.
Nwosu was standing on a sinking ground. While the other contestants had political parties, he had none.
Here is why.
While parading himself as the AA candidate, Nwosu had, also, laid claim to the APC ticket.
It was a weird abracadabra, driven by a roaring ambition, concocted for him by his father-in-law, Okorocha, who thought he had every plan in the bag.
None of them bargained for the revolt against them even in the AA.
Some people in the party protested Nwosu’s candidacy. They said he came to reap where he did not sow. They said they already had a candidate.
But he held tight. Then the Court cases began. An aggrieved party, Uche Nnadi, took Nwosu to court. The crux of the suit: Nwosu had the APC ticket, and cannot, also, lay claim to that of the AA.
The suit was instituted at the Federal High Court.
Even within the AA, he had no support at the Election Tribunal
The party pulled the rug from under his feet. At the National level, the AA denied him. It told the Court it was neither interested in the case, nor did anybody ask him to go to court. The party said he neither consulted its leaders, nor had their support.
But it was the Federal High Court which gave Nwosu a bloody nose, even though he had also lost at the Election tribunal, along with Senators Uzodinma and Ararume.
The Federal High Court in its verdict voided his candidacy. It said his votes were of no use; that they were like money thrown into an angry Atlantic Ocean.
But he rejected the verdict and appealed.
The Court of Appeal threw the case out. But Nwosu wouldn’t give up.
So, he went to the Supreme Court. But on Friday, a very symbolic day for, and in Imo state, the Supreme Court finally dismissed Nwosu’s participation in the Governorship election as fraudulent.
It was like a verdict ordained by God for the same day, even though it was a coincidence.
Imo people and their governor were in a celebration mood. It was on that Friday that the state held its Thanksgiving service to thank God for rescuing the state, and to mark the end of the year.
The Preacher was the powerful Rev. Umar Ukpai.
At the event that evening, the people sang their hearts out in praise to God. They prayed to God to sustain the state and their Governor.
They had heard the fate that befell Nwosu, and by extension, Uzodinma. They understood the implications.
Nwosu has accepted the Supreme Court’s verdict that he had come to the end of his ambition. The Supreme Court was of the view that his fate was self-inflicted. It said it cannot gain from his iniquity. Whether Uzodinma would read the hand-writing on the wall that the Supreme Court’s verdict on Nwosu’s case has rubbished his is not yet known.
What the people know is that Imo has moved on. They are focused on Ihedioha’s efforts to rebuild the state.
