Festus Okoye, INEC’s national commissioner for information and voter education, said the commission is yet to be served with the enrolled copy of the ruling of the supreme court which on Tuesday sacked Emeka Ihedioha from office.
Okoye said: “We have no problem with issuing certificate of return, but we cannot issue the certificate until when we see very clearly a certified copy of the judgment of Supreme Court or an enrolled order of the judgment of the court directing us clearly and unequivocally on what to do.
“The moment we see it, issuing certificate is a mini venture, we will definitely comply. We have the constitutional responsibility to obey the judgment of supreme court.
“The commission has not been served with the copy of the enrolled judgment so that the commission will know clearly and unequivocally what the supreme court directed us to do.
“The moment we are served with the court order we will issue the certificate immediately.”
The supreme court, in a unanimous judgment on Tuesday, sacked Ihedioha and declared Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress winner of the March 9, 2019 election.
The seven-man panel held that Ihedioha of the PDP did not win majority of votes cast in the election.
Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, who read the lead judgement ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Ihedioha and give a fresh one to his APC rival, Uzodinma.
Okoye said the commission had no problem with issuing a certificate of return in compliance with the court order but it needed a copy of the enrolled court judgment to know clearly what it was ordered to do.
He said the commission had the responsibility to obey the judgment of the court as the final court of the land.
After the initial statement, however, the INEC on Wednesday gave Certificate of Return to Uzodinma.
Uzodinma was said to have received the CoR without much ceremony at the INEC Headquarters in Abuja.
The Chief Press Secretary of INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, confirmed that Uzodinma has received the document.
He said: “I have just confirmed that the Certificate of Return has been presented to the Governor-Elect of Imo State (Hope Uzodinma) by (INEC) National Commissioner, May Agbamuche-Mbu in the presence of National Commissioners, Abubakar Nahuche and Dr. Mustafa Lecky,” the Punch reported.