Supreme Court Postpones Hearing of Ihedioha’s Application

The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of Emeka Ihedioha’s application seeking the review of the January 14, 2020 judgment which sacked him as Imo State governor and installed Hope Uzodinma as his replacement.

The seven-man panel of the apex court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, adjourned the hearing after Ihedioha’s lawyer, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), told the court that processes were still being filed.

“My lords, processes are still coming in. Up till this morning, we were still receiving processes. We therefore, apply for an adjournment to enable all the processes to come in,” Agabi said.

The lawyer representing Uzodinma and his party, the All Progressives Congress, Damian Dodo (SAN), and that of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Taminu Inuwa (SAN), did not oppose the application for adjournment.

The CJN-led panel subsequently adjourned till March 2 for hearing.

A seven-man panel of the apex court led by the CJN had in the January 14, 2020 judgment removed Iheodioha as the Imo State governor and declared Uzodinma as the winner of the last governorship election in the state.

Justice Kekere-Ekun, who read the lead judgment, had upheld Uzodinma’s appeal, ruling that the votes polled in 388 out of the 3,523 polling units were excluded in the final results declared by INEC in the state.

The apex court held that Uzodinma emerged winner of the election after the addition of the excluded votes.

But Ihedioha, through his lead counsel, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), a former Attorney General of the Federation, had on February 5, 2020, filed an application before the court seeking “an order setting aside as a nullity” the January 14 judgment.

Credit: Punch