The Supreme Court of Nigeria has dismissed an application by Hon. Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to be issued a certificate of return as the rightful governor of Imo State.
Ihedioha had claimed that Senator Hope Uzodimma was not qualified to run in the 2019 governorship election in the first place, as according to him, he did not have the required number of votes to win the primary election of his party, the APC.
In a ruling on Tuesday, read by Justice Tijjani Abubakar, the apex court dismissed the application for lacking in merit, describing it as unnecessary and vexatious.
The Supreme Court also held that Ihedioha’s request was strange, frivolous, baseless and unwarranted, declaring that the motion was a calculated design to make mockery of the apex court.
The court therefore awarded N40 million in costs against Ihedioha’s lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, for bringing the matter before the court.
Those to be paid are the Action People’s Party (APP), Uche Nnadi, Uche Nwosu and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the motion filed through his counsel, Ozekhome, Ihedioha had prayed the apex court for a consequential order to compel INEC to issue a fresh Certificate of Return to him to enable him spend a four year tenure as Imo State Governor.
His lawyer, Ozekhome had submitted that Uzodimma unlawfully spent the four years which Ihedioha ought to spend.
However, the Supreme Court rejected Ihedioha’s arguments, and reasoned that Uzodimma’s candidacy was valid.
In dismissing the motion as “strange, frivolous, baseless, unwarranted and vexatious”, the court noted that Ozekhome deliberately filed the frivolous application to make a mockery of the Supreme Court.
The Tuesday’s ruling effectively upholds the January 14, 2020 judgement of the Supreme Court, which nullified Ihedioha’s election and declared Uzodimma of the APC as the winner of the 2019 governorship election in Imo State.