The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the March 9th election in Imo state, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has petitioned the Imo state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, asking it to nullify the declaration of the PDP candidate, Emeka Ihedioha, as winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The petition therefore urged the tribunal to declare Senator Uzodinma of the APC winner of the election, haven polled majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and satisfied the mandatory constitutional threshold and spread across the state and “ought to be returned”.
The petition alleged that the INEC excluded votes casted for the APC at the polling units across the state which gave the PDP candidate advantage, adding however that after tabulating the valid votes at the polling units, the APC candidate defeated the PDP candidate with a large margin.
The petition opined that “it was at the course of collation of the results at the ward, local government and state levels, that the 3rd respondent (INEC) incorrectly stated the votes of the 1st Respondent (Ihedioha) and thus reduced the votes of the petitioners by excluding the results from the polling units where the petitioners scored overwhelming majority of the votes cast.
The petitioner further avers that “in order to give unfair advantage to the 1st and 2nd Respondents, the INEC unlawfully credited the 1st and 2nd Respondents with votes arising from over voting in all of the polling units in Aboh Mbaise, Ezinihitte and Ahiazu Mbaise LGAs.
The petition further argued that the INEC did not comply with the Electoral Act 2010 and INEC guidelines for 2019 general elections when it recruited relatives of the PDP candidate, Emeka Ihedioha as collation officers and returning officers in most of the local government areas in the state during the election.
