The Supreme Court has once again delayed the hearing of applications filed three years ago by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Action People’s Party (APP) to invalidate the eligibility of All Progressives Congress (APC) Hope Uzodimma to run in the 2019 Imo State governorship election. The new hearing date is December 5, 2023.
The applicants are urging the Supreme Court to enforce its 2019 ruling, which disqualified Uche Nwosu from the Action Alliance (AA) in the election due to double nomination.
They contend that the Supreme Court’s decision that APC had also nominated Nwosu means that APC couldn’t have simultaneously nominated Uzodimma.
Therefore, they are requesting the apex court to declare Emeka Ihedioha, the PDP candidate, as the rightful winner of the election, as APC was prohibited from endorsing two candidates in the election.
The Supreme Court’s verdict on the 2019 Imo governorship election is among the cases highlighted by retired Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad as being of public interest. PDP submitted its application on July 9, 2020, but the Supreme Court did not schedule a hearing date until this week, more than three years later.
While the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) initially declared Ihedioha as the winner of the election, the Supreme Court, in 2020, removed Ihedioha from office and declared Uzodimma as the election’s victor.
In the lead-up to the 2019 Imo governorship election, both the All Progressives Party (APP) and their candidate, Mr. Uche Nnadi, as well as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), approached the Federal High Court in Abuja. They sought various remedies, including the disqualification of Nwosu from participating in the election on the basis that he had been nominated by two political parties, the Action Alliance (AA) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), which was in violation of Section 37 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), prohibiting dual nominations.
The PDP and APP emerged victorious at the High Court and Court of Appeal levels. However, the Supreme Court concurred in a December 2019 judgment that Nwosu had indeed committed the offense of double nomination under both the APC and AA, a ruling that led to the current appeals.
In these new appeals, the PDP and APP are seeking the Supreme Court to uphold its 2019 ruling that disqualified Nwosu from the election due to the issue of double nomination.