The case brought by a former Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, Staff Phillip Umeadi, before the Supreme Court of Nigeria concerning the 2019 Imo Governorship is said to commence next week in Abuja.
The matter has to do with the issue of candidature of the All Progressive Congress APC in the election which took place on March 9, 2019 and was won by Peoples Democratic Party, PDP initially by INEC result until APC won in Court later.
Umeadi had approached the Supreme Court to solve the puzzle of confusion surrounding the APC Governorship candidate in the March 9, 2019 election, as he posited that by Law, APC did not have a candidate in that election following an earlier judgment by the same Supreme Court.
Umeadi is arguing that based on the Supreme Court earlier judgment, technically, APC ought not have had a candidate, since it is on record, right there in the Supreme Court that abinitio that the party had no candidate in that election.
According to Umeadi’s prayer before the Supreme, the highest Court in the Land cannot probate and reprobate on the same matter is in “Factual record domiciled in the Supreme Court” concerning the case in question.
The Lawyer explained that prior to the Imo Governorship election, the Supreme Court in one of its judgments had affirmed that APC had not candidate.
Umeadi explained that Chief Uche Nwosu of Action Alliance, AA, in the “Purported” election had suffered a penalty of disqualification for being a “dual candidate” of AA and APC, since he procured the Interest Forms of both political parties.
Following this situation, “Nwosu was technically knocked out by Law and was never a candidate in that election”.
Therefore Umeadi’s plank of argument is hinged on how the incumbent Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, later emerged the candidate of the same APC, which the Supreme Court had hitherto ruled as not having a candidate due to Uche Nwosu’s “double registration” and eventual disqualification by the Supreme Court.
This is the matter that comes before the Supreme Court next week.
Sources said that the matter had lingered this long because it came to the Supreme Court when the Judiciary was embarking on a three months Leave which ended in September.
Sources told this Newspaper that last week, Umeadi filled a fresh application seeking for the hearing of the case fast.
Trumpeta learnt that following the latest application by Umeadi, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which stands to gain or lose, depending how the matter went, has officially been joined and served in the matter.
However, it was learnt that the latest delay in hearing the case was because the Court was assembling the Panel of Judges that will deal with case.
Trumpeta learnt that a Six Man Panel of Judges has in now been constituted to look into the contentious issues.
Our source in Abuja said that with the constitution of the Panel of Judges, the case will come up next week, and would be “expeditiously deliberated on”.
Meanwhile, tension has gripped the two major political camps in Imo politics; APC and PDP.
While each group is speaking with optimism, only the Panel of Judges will determine this matter that has held Imo people on edge for months now.
The outcome of the Umeadi case will bring to a final conclusion to the 2019 Imo Governorship imbroglio, and there is no other Court in the land to approach after this one.
“Let this thing end so that we can all move on with our Lives. Imo State must move on no matter the outcome of the judgment” Chief Stanley Ekeopara, a retired police officer told Trumpeta.
