Imo: Beyond The Hysteria and Selective Amnesia.

What Really Happened In Imo?

I’m being realistic here. There’s little to be emotional about over this. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands.

INEC declared Emeka Ihedioha winner of the 2019 Governorship election. I, We accepted it because INEC has the authority in spite of the clear fact that Ihedioha clearly did not meet the Constitutionally required 25% spread and INEC knew it (Never mind the jumbo Mbaise votes). Many of us knew it and I was actually wondering how that would be allowed to slide all through.

In my view, INEC should have declared the election inconclusive that night and ordered a run off between Emeka Ihedioha and Uche Nwosu. It did not. Why. I can’t say. We celebrated and accepted it as the will of God.

Most likely if INEC had done the right thing then, Emeka Ihedioha would have won the run off (considering the anti-Okorocha sentiments then) and that would have probably pulled the rug off Hope Uzodinma’s feet. But they allowed him to live to fight another day. You can’t have your cake and eat it.

Hope Uzodinma, Uche Nwosu and Ifeanyi Araraume subsequently all went to Court which was their Constitutional right.

The lower Tribunal ignored the question of 25% even though it saw it clearly and ignored Uche Nwosu who protested it.

The Appeal Court also ignored it and passed the buck to the Supreme Court but Hope Uzodinma saw a loophole to strengthen his case and strategize.

There was a dissenting judgement in the Appeal Court which further opened a window of Hope for Hope Uzodinma to go the Supreme Court to ‘try his luck’.

Meanwhile in a bid to further cripple Uche Nwosu, Emeka Ihedioha and the PDP through gun-for-hire, Ikenga Ugochinyere went to Court to prove that Uche Nwosu had double nomination having won the APC Primaries. The Supreme Court ruled that Uche Nwosu actually was the validly nominated candidate for the APC. The young man said I surrender. I accept my fate because the Supreme Court is final. But little did they know that that judgement was going to come to haunt Emeka Ihedioha and the PDP.

The stage was thus set for the Supreme Court to looked at all the matters.

Senator Ifeanyi Araraume’s case was somehow dumped along the way.

First there was a clear case of 25% which was not a met by Emeka Ihedioha, a fact that both lower Courts (Tribunal and Appeal Court) had glossed over for reasons best known to them. It was a constitutional matter. If the Supreme Court ignored it too, that would establish a precedence and no Supreme Court panel would want to do that.

The chicken had come home to roost. It was now a game beyond both Emeka Ihedioha and Hope Uzodinma. It was now in hard core legal territory.

The Supreme Court also looked at the dissenting judgement from the Appeal Court. It could not have also ignore it.

WHAT WAS THE ISSUE IN SUMMARY?

Hope Uzodinma argued that 388 Polling units results were excluded. If you added those results, Hope Uzodinma would have more votes than Emeka Ihedioha.

Emeka Ihedioha and the PDP said they were fake but INEC said they were the actual duplicates with the correct serial numbers of their result sheets and they were endorsed and tendered by the police. INEC did not produce any contrary evidence. Emeka Ihedioha could not produce any result to counter that. If you allege something is fake, the onus is on you to produce the ‘real’. If you can’t produce the ‘original’ or ‘real’ one, then you have no case. That’s law not emotions.

At this point, Emeka Ihedioha’s case was now in jeopardy legally and technically. Forget about Fr Mbaka’s Prophecy.

This is where Uche Nwosu would have actually come into play. But remember Emeka Ihedioha and the PDP had earlier totally ‘broken his legs’ so to speak by the Supreme Court ruling he had double nomination and thus was disqualified. At that juncture, the young man withdrew his petition before the Supreme Court. He can’t come and kill himself. He is a democrat and he also saw where the pendulum was swinging. He was not going to win it anyways.

The Supreme Court ruled on the facts before it that Emeka Ihedioha did not get the required 25% and if they added the 388 Polling units that Emeka Ihedioha and the PDP could not factually disprove (which the Supreme Court did accept and add), Hope Uzodinma was declared winner. Case closed.

Where Then Lies The “Injustice”? Who was unjust and to who?

I feel for Emeka Ihedioha but there’s no room for emotions here. People are free to protest and wail if it makes them happy but they must wail with some decency and decorum.

If they tell themselves and those brethren out on the streets of Owerri the whole truth, they will all go home to their various families.

Just had to set this record straight factually and objectively. I stand to be corrected. Afterall I’m not a learned gentlemen just a guy with common sense. But we can’t accept and applaud when it favors us and reject when it does not.

Please Let’s Just Stand Up And Keep Building Imo.

_________ Dr. Uche Diala