The Federal High Court in Abuja has sacked Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma as the Imo West senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2027 general elections and replaced him with Rochas Okorocha.
In a judgement on Thursday, Judge Obiora Egwuatu ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish the name of Mr Okorocha, a former governor of the state who was previously elected to represent the district in the Nigerian Senate, as the validly nominated candidate of the APC for the upcoming senatorial election.
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The Punch reported that the judge directed Mr Uzodimma, chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, a peer-review group of APC governors, to stop parading himself as the APC candidate for the 16 January 2027 election.
The judge ordered the APC to forward Mr Okorocha’s name as candidate of the party for the 2027 general elections for Imo West Senatorial District.
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Mr Egwuatu issued the orders in a suit filed by Mr Okorocha challenging Mr Uzodimma’s nomination.
The judge ruled that sufficient evidence provided by Mr Okorocha showed that he, and not Mr Uzodimma, won the 18 May APC primary election monitored by INEC.
Mr Uzodimma reserves the right to appeal the judgement in the case which is likely to reach the Supreme Court for ultimate resolution.
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Mr Okorocha previously served as a senator representing the Imo West senatorial district from June 2019 to June 2023 during the 9th Nigerian Senate.
His election to the senate followed his eight years as governor between May 2011 and May 2019.
His bid to return to the Senate has intensified the longtime rivalry between him and Mr Uzodimma, who became governor through a controversial Supreme Court judgement in January 2020 despite the then-incumbent governor Okorocha backing another candidate to succeed him.
Mr Uzodimma is in his second and final four-year term as governor, which should run till January 2028. If he eventually prevails in the senatorial contest, he must resign as governor and forfeit the remaining six months of his tenure to take up the senatorial seat.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Okorocha, in his suit, challenged the INEC over the publication of Mr Uzodinma’s name as APC’s candidate for the Imo West Senatorial District.
Mr Okorocha filed the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1854/2026 on 13 August, joining INEC, APC and Mr Uzodinma as respondents.
He urged the court to determine whether INEC was not bound by the reports of its officers who monitored the APC primary election duly conducted on 18 May for the nomination of its candidate for the Imo West Senatorial District for the 2027 general elections in which he emerged the winner.
He also prayed the court to hold that the publication of Mr Uzodinma’s name by INEC on 1 August as winner of APC primary for the Imo West Senatorial District for the 2027 poll was wrongful.
Mr Okorocha urged the court to, among his 10 prayers, declare that it was unlawful for the party to forward MrUzodinma’s name to INEC.
He urged the court to declare that it was unconstitutional for INEC to publish, as done on 18 August, Mr Uzodinma’s name as APC’s candidate when it was not him that emerged as the winner of the primary election conducted on 18 May.
He sought an order setting aside or voiding the publication made by INEC on Aug. 1 which declared Uzodinma as the person that won the highest votes in the APC’s primary election held on May 18 to contest as the preferred candidate for Imo West Senatorial District come 2027.
Mr Okorocha prayed the court for an order directing INEC to recognise and publish his name as the duly nominated candidate of APC to contest the poll.
He also sought an order prohibiting Mr Uzodinma whether by himself or through the APC or anyone, however named, from parading himself as the nominated candidate of the party to contest the election.
He equally sought an order awarding cost against the respondents as the noble court may deem appropriate in all the circumstances of the suit.
Okorocha’s case
Mr Okorocha’s son, Amen Rochas, gave an account of how the former governor emerged as the APC’s senatorial candidate in an affidavit filed in support of the suit.
Amen, who described himself as Mr Okorocha’s personal assistant on political matters, said his father, born on 22 September 1962 and a registered APC member, won the direct primary election conducted by APC on 18 May after polling 150,780 while Mr Uzodinma scored 102,158 votes.
He said after the poll, the APC wrote two letters to INEC reporting on the conduct of the primaries with the attached list of contestants and the outcome of the primaries.
Amen said the report of the outcome of the election was made and forwarded by the Head of Department, Election and Party Monitoring (EPM) for the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC for Imo to the commission’s chairman in Abuja.
He averred that the outcome of the party’s primary election as submitted by it to INEC, in respect of the Imo West Senatorial Zone, was not made public upon receipt by the electoral umpire until 1 August.
He said to Mr Okorocha’s shock and chagrin, INEC, rather than publishing the true outcome of the poll which his father won as confirmed by the commission’s own reports, strangely published Mr Uzodinma’s name as the winner.
In his account of the lead-up to the primary election, Amen recalled that the APC advertised earlier this year its schedule of activities and timetable for the conduct of its primaries that would lead to the emergence of its candidates in Imo State for various political offices to be conducted by INEC ahead of 2027.
He said pursuant to APC’s advertorial, Mr Okorocha, who hails from Ideato Local Government Area of Imo State in Imo West Senatorial District and is a financial card-carrying member of APC, expressed interest to be nominated as the party’s flagbearer to the Senate for the Imo West Senatorial Zone.
He said he purchased the Expression of Interest Form (EoI) and the Nomination Form which were duly completed by him and by his nominees as required thereof and submitted to APC.
Amen stated that Mr Uzodinma, who is also a member of APC from the same senatorial district as Mr Okorocha, and whose tenure in office as governor would not have expired by the year 2027 when the Senate will be inaugurated after the general election in 2027, also purchased an EoI and nomination forms for party’s senatorial candidate.
He said his father, Mr Uzodinma and many other APC aspirants were all screened and cleared to participate in the direct primaries.
Amen averred that on 17 May, contrary to extant electoral and party’s guidelines, the APC National Working Committee (NWC), through its National Organising Secretary, issued a notice, warning all state’s chairmen of its National Assembly Primary Election Committee not to engage in any press briefing or announce the outcome of the primaries.
He said the NWC directed that the results should be forwarded to the party’s national secretariat as the same would be announced at the national secretariat which culminated in the announcement of Mr Uzodimma’s name.
APC, Uzodimma opposition
Mr Uzodinma and APC disagreed with Mr Okorocha’s arguments.
The governor and the party, in their separate preliminary objections, prayed the court to dismiss the suit for being statute-barred, having failed to comply with Section 285(9) of the Nigerian constitution.
READ ALSO: 2027: No rainbow coalition in Imo – Uzodimma
Robort Emukpoeruo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who appeared for APC, and Onyechi Ikpeazu, also a SAN, who represented mr Uzodinma, submitted that the suit was filed outside the 14-day time limit prescribed by the law.
In the counter-affidavit by Lucky Ajokperiniovo on the governor’s behalf, he said he was part of the election committee constituted by the party to conduct the 18 May primary election in the state.
He said the votes were recorded, collated and duly transmitted from the voting venues at the wards, the respective LGAs collation centres, and then delivered to the senatorial district returning officer who finally collated and declared the results.
Mr Ajokperiniovo averred that while Mr Uzodinma won the Imo West Senatorial District poll, Alex Mbata won the Imo East Senatorial District election and Sen. Patrick Ndubueze was declared the winner of Imo North Senatorial District poll.
According to him, the report of the election was duly signed by all the members of the electoral committee, on 18 May.
He said no person, especially the aspirants, was in doubt as to the result of the election on that day.
“From the conduct of the election, I am aware that the 3rd respondent (Uzodinma) emerged victorious with 230,464 votes, while the applicant (Okorocha) scored 1, 098 votes,” he said.
Mr Ajokperiniovo said though an appeal committee was set up on the election, the panel did not receive any petition in respect of the outcome of the primary.
He submitted that the election was conducted in substantial compliance with the APC’s Constitution and guidelines and the Electoral Act, 2026.
The official alleged that Mr Okorocha had grossly and deliberately misrepresented what transpired.
He said Mr Uzodinma “is not now occupying a paid employment of the legislative arm of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
INEC’s opposition
INEC’s lawyer, M. A. Umar, also opposed Mr Okorocha’s suit.
In its counter-affidavit, the electoral body said its officials monitored the election and submitted a report and that the report indicated that Mr Uzodinma scored the highest number of votes and was declared the winner.
The commission said that it did not receive any complaint from any of the aspirants in respect of the poll.
Gyang Dung, an Assistant Chief Legal Officer, who deposed to the INEC’s counter affidavit, denied signing any of the exhibits Mr Okorocha tendered as evidence before the court.
(NAN)
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