…Says no proof votes ascribed to Uzodinma met mandatory spread

Sacked former governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, has urged the Supreme Court to speedily hear the application he filed for a review of the judgment that ousted him from office and declared Hope Uzodinma of All Progressives Congress, APC, as the validly elected governor of the state.

Ihedioha, in the application he filed through his team of lawyers led by a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN, maintained that the judgment the apex court delivered against him on January 14, amounted to a nullity.

Enumerating reasons why his sack should be reversed, Ihedioha who contested on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, argued that the Supreme Court lacked the jurisdiction to declare Uzodinma governor in the absence of any proof that votes ascribed to him met the mandatory geographical spread.

In his brief of argument, Ihedioha, contended:

“This honourable court did not have the jurisdiction to declare the 1st appellant/respondent as elected in the absence of any proof that the votes ascribed to him met the mandatory geographical spread stipulated in section 179 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

“This honourable court did not have the jurisdiction to declare that the 1st appellant/respondent met the constitutional geographical spread without providing in its judgment the reason(s) for that conclusion”.

He argued that the apex court panel, which was headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Tanko Muhammad, had no jurisdiction to hand victory to Uzodinma “in an election petition, which was based on two inconsistent and mutually exclusive grounds.”
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He drew attention of the apex court to the fact that one of the grounds of the petition Uzodinma lodged against the outcome of the Imo State governorship election, was that he (Ihedioha) was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election, “the implication of which is that the majority of votes cast at the election were valid.”

He said the second ground was that the election was invalid for non-compliance with the Electoral Act, “the implication of which is that the election be annulled.”

Besides, Ihedioha argued that the CJN-led panel failed to consider a subsisting judgment of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal that dismissed Uzodinma’s petition.

“At the Tribunal the 2nd Applicant (as 2nd Respondent) applied to have the petition struck out on the ground that it was incompetent having regard to the fact that the 1st Petitioner who came fourth did not join the 2nd and 3rd runners up in the Petition.

“The application was heard and dismissed by the Tribunal whereupon the 2nd Applicant appealed to the Court of Appeal by way of Cross Appeal to which the 1st and 2nd Respondents replied.

“The cross appeal was heard and allowed by the Court below. In the words of Adah JCA, who delivered the lead judgment in the cross appeal:

“The preliminary objection of the 1st Cross Respondent (sic) at the lower court is allowed and I hold that the appropriate order of the trial tribunal would have been to have petition no EPT/GOV/IM/08/2019 struck out for being incompetent. I therefore order the petition struck out. No cost is awarded.”

“The 1st and 2nd Respondents appealed against the above order of the Court below in ground 18 of their Notice of Appeal but only to the extent of showing that the 1st Appellant was the 1st Cross Respondent at the Court of Appeal.

“The order of the Court of Appeal striking out the Petition for being incompetent raises a jurisdictional issue which this Honourable Court ought to have resolved first before delving into the merits of the Appeal.

“In its judgment, this court neither considered nor resolved this jurisdictional issue.

“The failure of the Supreme Court to consider and pronounce on this issue amounts to a failure of jurisdiction and completely erodes the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to consider the appeal on the merits.

“Your Lordships neither set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal striking out the Petition for being incompetent nor made any pronouncement on it. In the absence of any pronouncement by the Supreme Court on this issue, the judgment of the Court of Appeal striking out the Petition for being incompetent remains valid and subsisting.

“In the absence of any specific order of the Supreme Court setting aside the order of the Court of Appeal striking out the petition, the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to countenance the Appellants’ appeal”, Ihedioha added.

More so, he argued that his sack was a nullity inview of section 140(2) of the Electoral Act (as amended), noting that Uzodinma divested the Supreme Court of the relevant jurisdiction to declare him winner since he had in his petition, branded and stigmatised the entire governorship election that held in Imo State on March 9, 2019, as invalid.

“The appellants/respondents fraudulently misled this court into holding that a total of 213,495 votes were unlawfully excluded from the votes scored by the 1st Appellant/Respondent in the gubernatorial election of 9th March 2019 in Imo State.

“The 1st Appellant/Respondent admitted under cross-examination that he was the person (and not the 3rd Respondent [INEC] or any of its officials) who computed the result that gave him the 213,495 votes alleged to have been excluded from his total votes in the election.

“The fraudulent nature of the additional votes was demonstrated by the fact that the total votes cast as shown in the 1st Appellant/ Respondent’s computation was more than the total number of voters accredited for the election and in some polling units more than the total number of registered voters.

“The fraud was also demonstrated by the fact that the result computed by the 1st Appellant/Respondent showed only the votes of the 1st Applicant and the 1st Appellant/Respondent without specifying the votes scored by the other 68 candidates who participated in the election.

“The fraud was further demonstrated by Exhibits 63RD1 to 63RD19 (INEC Forms EC40G) which show that there were no valid elections in the 388 polling units where the additional 213,495 votes claimed by the 1st Appellant/Respondent were allegedly generated.

“By Exhibit A1 (Form EC8D) the total number of voters accredited for the Governorship Election held on 9th March 2019 in Imo State was 823,743,while the total valid votes cast was 731,485.

“With the inclusion of 213,695 votes for the 1st Appellant/ Respondent and 1,903 to the votes of the 1st Applicant, as ordered by this court, the total number of votes cast at the election now stands at 953,083 (i.e. 731,485 + 213,695 + 1,903) making the total number of votes cast at the election to be far in excess of the total number of voters accredited for the election, 129,340.”

“It is unlawful for the total number of votes cast in an election to exceed the number of accredited voters and that illegality rendered the judgment sought to be set aside null and void.

“The Appellants/Respondents pleaded in paragraph 39 of their petition that a supplementary election should be conducted in the 388 polling units where the additional votes that created the illegality were alleged to have been cast and that pleading was binding on the Appellants/Respondents and the court.

“The 1st Appellant/Respondent alleged that votes from 388 polling units were unlawfully excluded or cancelled and urged the court to include in the computation of the election results the votes from those polling units. At the same time the 1st Appellant/Respondent prayed that fresh elections be conducted in the said polling units thus rendering the petition speculative.

“The Appellants/Respondents failed to plead the votes scored by all the parties in the 388 affected polling units. Only the votes allegedly scored by the 1st Appellant/Respondent and the 1st Applicant were pleaded – an omission which rendered the petition incompetent.

“This Honourable Court was consequently misled into making a vague order directing the inclusion of votes from the 388 polling units without stating or specifying the particular number of votes to be included from those polling units for all the parties.

“Without computing the votes for all the parties from the 388 polling units this honourable court was misled into making a declaration that the 1st Appellant/Respondent was the winner of the gubernatorial election in Imo State – an election that the Appellants/Respondents had themselves branded or stigmatized as invalid on account of non-compliance”, Ihedioha added.


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/02/imo-reverse-your-verdict-ihedioha-tells-s-court

This one na Appeal and should read..... Ihedioha Appeals Supreme Court judgement

IMO SUPREME COURT REVIEW

After carefully reading the entire 48 page motion as filed with the Supreme Court of Nigeria, praying that the apex court declare as nullity its judgement that declared Hope Uzodimma the winner of Imo gubernatorial elections of March 9, 2019, below are my opinions.

My position is based purely on facts and not sentiments. I had told Ihedioha’s supporters that his undoing was the INEC and his Counsel.

Even with the motion for review they filed, while quoting the reason for judgement in Adegoke Motors vs Adesanya by Supreme Court Justice C. Oputa, they wrote “it is far better to admit an error than to preserve an error” whereas the correct quote is “it is far better to admit an error than to persevere in error”. I bet you his Counsel did not tell him reasons why Supreme Court may decide to review and or revise itself, they didn’t.

Let me put it in layman’s terms, the Supreme Court, may not review a case when the judgement are unanimous. That is usually the first rule. They will not accept to review his case on the basis of these motions he filed, because if they do, they will by this singular action have to resolve several layers of complex legal matters which may involve questions of electoral law and that is a no no.

To say this in other terms, the grounds for which the review is being sought are not good grounds. As the apex court of the land, his motion thus seeks to challenge the factual reasons of the judges and also evaluate if they properly applied settled matter.

Granting a review on the grounds of the motion as filed by his Counsel will be akin to deciding whether an armed robber is actually innocent and if the courts were biased in interpreting the law.

The motion as filed will not be accepted for review because it lacks merit. I will expect the supreme court of Nigeria in not too distant time to issue a “Denial for Request”.

This is because the motion as filed by his Counsel lacks merit for review. If they accept it the way it is, it will be tantamount to a full litigation. They can't do that.

By

Jeff Uzor
06/02/2020

Is that even possible for supreme court to review all this attacking reasons why they should re-consider, I don't think all this write up is needed when you think you're being cheated. Jurisdiction has no right to....... I guess in my own small brain that doesn't have head for anything about law. I don't think that sound quite well. Don't you think supreme court rule is politically inclined?Because I keep wondering why court of appeal ruling doesn't go same way with supreme court ruling. I keep asking myself same question, do we have different approaches to case in both courts of law? You can get high definition movies and series into external drive and pc including Doctor Sleep, Power (up to S6E14), Supernatural(up to S15E11) (zero,eight,one,four,four,two,three,eight,three,two,seven)

kahal29:
IMO SUPREME COURT REVIEW

After carefully reading the entire 48 page motion as filed with the Supreme Court of Nigeria, praying that the apex court declare as nullity its judgement that declared Hope Uzodimma the winner of Imo gubernatorial elections of March 9, 2019, below are my opinions.

My position is based purely on facts and not sentiments. I had told Ihedioha’s supporters that his undoing was the INEC and his Counsel.

Even with the motion for review they filed, while quoting the reason for judgement in Adegoke Motors vs Adesanya by Supreme Court Justice C. Oputa, they wrote “it is far better to admit an error than to preserve an error” whereas the correct quote is “it is far better to admit an error than to persevere in error”. I bet you his Counsel did not tell him reasons why Supreme Court may decide to review and or revise itself, they didn’t.

Let me put it in layman’s terms, the Supreme Court, may not review a case when the judgement are unanimous. That is usually the first rule. They will not accept to review his case on the basis of these motions he filed, because if they do, they will by this singular action have to resolve several layers of complex legal matters which may involve questions of electoral law and that is a no no.

To say this in other terms, the grounds for which the review is being sought are not good grounds. As the apex court of the land, his motion thus seeks to challenge the factual reasons of the judges and also evaluate if they properly applied settled matter.

Granting a review on the grounds of the motion as filed by his Counsel will be akin to deciding whether an armed robber is actually innocent and if the courts were biased in interpreting the law.

The motion as filed will not be accepted for review because it lacks merit. I will expect the supreme court of Nigeria in not too distant time to issue a “Denial for Request”.

This is because the motion as filed by his Counsel lacks merit for review. If they accept it the way it is, it will be tantamount to a full litigation. They can't do that.

By

Jeff Uzor
06/02/2020

Very Apt

ojikeebere12:
This one na Appeal and should read..... Ihedioha Appeals Supreme Court judgement

Can the supreme court in an appeal over a matter it has decided?

kahal29:
IMO SUPREME COURT REVIEW

After carefully reading the entire 48 page motion as filed with the Supreme Court of Nigeria, praying that the apex court declare as nullity its judgement that declared Hope Uzodimma the winner of Imo gubernatorial elections of March 9, 2019, below are my opinions.

My position is based purely on facts and not sentiments. I had told Ihedioha’s supporters that his undoing was the INEC and his Counsel.

Even with the motion for review they filed, while quoting the reason for judgement in Adegoke Motors vs Adesanya by Supreme Court Justice C. Oputa, they wrote “it is far better to admit an error than to preserve an error” whereas the correct quote is “it is far better to admit an error than to persevere in error”. I bet you his Counsel did not tell him reasons why Supreme Court may decide to review and or revise itself, they didn’t.

Let me put it in layman’s terms, the Supreme Court, may not review a case when the judgement are unanimous. That is usually the first rule. They will not accept to review his case on the basis of these motions he filed, because if they do, they will by this singular action have to resolve several layers of complex legal matters which may involve questions of electoral law and that is a no no.

To say this in other terms, the grounds for which the review is being sought are not good grounds. As the apex court of the land, his motion thus seeks to challenge the factual reasons of the judges and also evaluate if they properly applied settled matter.

Granting a review on the grounds of the motion as filed by his Counsel will be akin to deciding whether an armed robber is actually innocent and if the courts were biased in interpreting the law.

The motion as filed will not be accepted for review because it lacks merit. I will expect the supreme court of Nigeria in not too distant time to issue a “Denial for Request”.

This is because the motion as filed by his Counsel lacks merit for review. If they accept it the way it is, it will be tantamount to a full litigation. They can't do that.

By

Jeff Uzor
06/02/2020

. First of all supreme Court have agreed to review the judgement,, i don't know what is your concern or afraid of not wanting the supreme Court to review the case, all the hullabaloo from all the lovers of evils that supreme Court will be upturning itself and must not review the judgement of 14 January against Emeka Ihedioha shows that there is actually fear of known

ojikeebere12:



Very Apt

. What again would you have said before.

Is it by force to steal imo money? Imo have rejected you Mr man, relax and recontest in 2028. Is that one hard? You are still a young man ihedioha.

PDP is attempting to make our judiciary a laughing stock. You don't appeal a supreme Court decision. Shuu?

kahal29:
IMO SUPREME COURT REVIEW

After carefully reading the entire 48 page motion as filed with the Supreme Court of Nigeria, praying that the apex court declare as nullity its judgement that declared Hope Uzodimma the winner of Imo gubernatorial elections of March 9, 2019, below are my opinions.

My position is based purely on facts and not sentiments. I had told Ihedioha’s supporters that his undoing was the INEC and his Counsel.

Even with the motion for review they filed, while quoting the reason for judgement in Adegoke Motors vs Adesanya by Supreme Court Justice C. Oputa, they wrote “it is far better to admit an error than to preserve an error” whereas the correct quote is “it is far better to admit an error than to persevere in error”. I bet you his Counsel did not tell him reasons why Supreme Court may decide to review and or revise itself, they didn’t.

Let me put it in layman’s terms, the Supreme Court, may not review a case when the judgement are unanimous. That is usually the first rule. They will not accept to review his case on the basis of these motions he filed, because if they do, they will by this singular action have to resolve several layers of complex legal matters which may involve questions of electoral law and that is a no no.

To say this in other terms, the grounds for which the review is being sought are not good grounds. As the apex court of the land, his motion thus seeks to challenge the factual reasons of the judges and also evaluate if they properly applied settled matter.

Granting a review on the grounds of the motion as filed by his Counsel will be akin to deciding whether an armed robber is actually innocent and if the courts were biased in interpreting the law.

The motion as filed will not be accepted for review because it lacks merit. I will expect the supreme court of Nigeria in not too distant time to issue a “Denial for Request”.

This is because the motion as filed by his Counsel lacks merit for review. If they accept it the way it is, it will be tantamount to a full litigation. They can't do that.

By

Jeff Uzor
06/02/2020

Supreme Court may not review the judgement because of political correctness not for the sake justice. If not for legal justice at least for moral justice. How can we explain in history that our supreme court elected a governor based on a result that out numbered the registered voters?

dlondonbadboy:
Is it by force to steal imo money? Imo have rejected you Mr man, relax and recontest in 2028. Is that one hard? You are still a young man ihedioha.

PDP is attempting to make our judiciary a laughing stock. You don't appeal a supreme Court decision. Shuu?

. APC has already done that, they bhave messed up Nigeria in every aspect, imagine what a judgement from Nigerian supreme Court for that matter, do you think with such judgement people will trust Nigerian judiciary again, even majority of the judges of the supreme Court, Appel court and federal high court want that case to be reviewed to save the Nigerian judiciary the embarrassment and future break down due that frivolous judgement, the mistake APC and Tanko Muhammad made was using Emeka Ihedioha to play that jamboree, he didn't know that Emeka Ihedioha is an mbaise man, those people are very dogged, strong minded, very vindictive, they don't like to be cheated, you can't do, whatever is their own you can't take from them, that is why imo people hate them, because they always fight for their right, all the mbaise people will be with him in this fight both home and abroad, including his sister justice Mary Odili a senior bencher in the supreme Court, who is equally leading other judges who are insisting on the review of that matter

This is the consequences of having a sharia judge heading the bench.

Look at the shame he has brought to the honourable bench. We have become a laughing stock in the international community. Imagine awarding votes not from "INEC", as INEC is the only body constitutionaly empowered to do so.
Now we have a terrible precedence, all because of incompetence.

Now we know why Onnohhen was removed.

durangokid:
. APC has already done that, they bhave messed up Nigeria in every aspect, imagine what a judgement from Nigerian supreme Court for that matter, do you think with such judgement people will trust Nigerian judiciary again, even majority of the judges of the supreme Court, Appel court and federal high court want that case to be reviewed to save the Nigerian judiciary the embarrassment and future break down due that frivolous judgement, the mistake APC and Tanko Muhammad made was using Emeka Ihedioha to play that jamboree, he didn't know that Emeka Ihedioha is an mbaise man, those people are very dogged, strong minded, very vindictive, they don't like to be cheated, you can't do, whatever is their own you can't take from them, that is why imo people hate them, because they always fight for their right, all the mbaise people will be with him in this fight both home and abroad, including his sister justice Mary Odili a senior bencher in the supreme Court, who is equally leading other judges who are insisting on the review of that matter

LOL. Nobody cares. There is a new government in imo. And uzodinma has started work already. Yes, it's painful to ihedioha but majority has spoken. And majority is with Hope.

dlondonbadboy:


LOL. Nobody cares. There is a new government in imo. And uzodinma has started work already. Yes, it's painful to ihedioha but majority has spoken. And majority is with Hope.

. Emeka Ihedioha started too for seven months who knows how many months Hope Uzodinma will stay I know most of you are afraid if the will go ahead with the review because it's very obvious if they review the judgement Hope Uzodinma will go, you don't use another child toy to appese another child, with the dust that judgement have raised within Nigeria and international community I doubt if that case will be not be upturned, especially as that judgement will not be cited in any judgment in Nigeria court, coupled with President Buhari being uncomfortable with the embarrassment the country is recovering from the international community, what you people who are supporting the judicial scandal don't know is wiy such ruling, it can be anybody tomorrow, YOU DON'T USE ANOTHER CHILD TOY TO APPEASE ANOTHER CHILD

If only Nigeria is a country run by rule of law we won't be where we are today.
We live in a cattle Republic led by incompetent herders.