By Ephraim Nwagwu
I watched the video of Barr. Kingdom Okere, after the rather infamous January 14th 2020, ruling on the Supreme Court in the Imo State governorship elections, as he lamented what he termed amongst other things, “murdering democracy and giving judicial backing to Illegality and fraud” (Video below).
Looking at some articles, about the first one year of Senator Hope Uzodinma in office, I start wondering, are we celebrating one year of Illegality?
Re-echoing the infamous judgement, which one of the judges at the review, Justice Nweze, warned would haunt the country’s judicial system for a long time, I saw Kingdom Okere wondering how 366 results were presented, yet 388 was computed and awarded to Uzodinma. Kingdom Okere wondered how only one person got the entire votes of the so-called 388 polling units, wondering where the scores of others were.
If we should go by what Kingdom Okere said, which many people seem to believe in, should we also, like Kingdom Okere, be ashamed of the Supreme Court on their behalf?
Moving forward, with the Philip Umeadi suit, which now seems to show that Senator Hope Uzodinma, probably didn’t even participate in the 2019 General Elections, as the same Supreme Court ruled that Uche Nwosu won the APC primaries, and was the authentic candidate for the election, would this be affirming that the one year in office of Uzodinma, may in fact be illegal?
Recall that one of his aides, was arrested and paraded on national TV, over alleged fraud during the APC primaries. There was also the Gulak drama amongst other things that played out within that period.
Uzodinma himself on camera, admitted to using unorthodox methods, which he referred to as “Ben Johnson Way”, to manipulate his way into the APC ticket. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court seems to disagree whether he truly owns the ticket.
With the Supreme Court ruling that affirmed Uche Nwosu as the party’s candidate, it becomes obvious that Uzodinma probably shouldn’t be sitting in Douglas House, and celebrating his continued stay, may amount to celebrating Illegality.
The Supreme Court, have been dragging their feet to hear the suit brought before it by Philip Umeadi. There are belief on the streets of Imo State, where the people are eagerly waiting for the hearing of the case, that the delay is deliberate, and probably funded.
A lot of fingers have been pointed at the delay in hearing the matter, as reason behind the nonpayment of pensioners and civil servants.
Uzodinma have claimed that he have paid all pensioners in the state, yet on my street alone, are about four pensioners who have not received a Kobo since after Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha left office, and they wonder whether Uzodinma was paying to ghost pensioners, or telling lies to the people.
As it is, until the Supreme Court gives a plausible explanation as to how Uzodinma, who isn’t the candidate of the party, is today sitting in Douglas House, or reverse their very unpopular ruling on that matter, which has haunted them for so long, the general notion remains that Imo is presently in a state of adminstrative illegality.
