OPINION: Imo Guber Verdict; Separating Facts From Fictions | By Maxwell Adeleye

My position on this controversial verdict may sound strange but I have learnt to separate facts from fictions.

In my opinion, the Ex-Governor Emeka Ihedioha and his party should blame his legal team for his loss at the Supreme Court rather than attacking the Judiciary.

How? Please follow me!

Dubious Results SIGNED and DECLARED by Presiding Officers in about 350 polling units were brought to Ward Collation Center.

Worrying over the senseless declaration, the Ward Collation center cancelled everything. That action of the Ward Collation Officer was illegal. Supreme Court has settled it that election Results, once declared at polling units, can only be cancelled by TRIBUNAL.

Hope Uzodima of the APC went to court to challenge the cancellations of his result by ward collation officer. Ihedioha legal team merely replied that the Ward Collation Officer was right without filing a petition to challenge the INTEGRITY of the Results declared for Hope Uzodima by the Presiding Officers.

And since the Supreme Court had earlier ruled that results declared at polling units can only be cancelled by Tribunal, it would amount to JUDICIAL CONTRADICTION on the side of the apex Court if the prayers sought by HOPE are not granted when there’s no formal petition challenging the integrity of the CONTROVERSIAL RESULTS.

The legal team of the PDP and Emeka Ihedioha should also be blamed for not challenging the legal right of Hope Uzodima to lay claim to the Imo governorship seat since Supreme Court had ruled that Uche Nwosu is the validly nominated candidate of APC.

Since Uche Nwosu did not challenge the victory of Ihedioha on the platform of APC, Hope’s Petition becomes an academic exercise unless the panel of judges want to allow APC to nominate someone else to take over the Votes because the validated votes, as earlier affirmed by various Supreme Court rulings, belong to APC, not the candidate.

A related example was when the incumbent Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, petitioned the victory of Olusegun Mimiko in 2012, when the case got to Supreme Court, Mimiko legal team challenged the legal right of Akeredolu to challenge the Victory of their client since Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) under which the petitioner ran for the election has ceased to exist. They case was dismissed and cost awarded against the plaintiff.

I think the lacuna deployed by the legal team of Senator Biodun Olujimi of Ekiti South to send Prince Dayo Adeyeye out of National Assembly is related to what the legal team of Hope Uzodima deployed against Emeka Ihedioha. Polling Units results declared are the most Supreme, not what even the state returning officer declares.

Judges are not father Christmas, they can only grant what you seek from them.