Uzodinma’s govt is illegitimate, says UK group

Fatherland Group, a global network of Nigerian professionals in the UK, says it mysterious that 388 polling units produced 213,695 votes for Hope Uzodinma, All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in Imo state.

The supreme court sacked Emeka Ihedioha, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, on the grounds that results from 388 polling units were excluded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during its final tally.

Uzodinma, in his petition, had argued that he scored majority of the votes in the polling units excluded by the electoral commission.

The APC candidate who initially finished in fourth place was declared winner by the apex court when 213,695 votes were added to 96,458 votes he earlier secured. Ihedioha polled 273,404.

In a statement on Saturday, Dele Ogun, chairman of the group, said Uzodinma’s administration would continue “to have the problem of legitimacy.”

“The APC central contention was that INEC had improperly excluded results from 388 polling units in which he had scored the overwhelming majority of the votes cast,” Ogun said.

“Specifically he argued that the total votes due to him from the 388 polling units, and which had been so excluded was 213,695 as against 1,903 votes from the same units due to Ihedioha.

“He submitted that had these votes been taken into account it would have been found that he had secured a majority of the lawful votes cast. It remains a mystery how 388 polling units could produce a total of 213,695 votes.

“Substantive justice is having a dispute decided on the facts of the dispute while technical justice does not really decide the case on the facts of the dispute rather, it decides the dispute on the rules of court or procedural statutory provisions which does not guarantee that the real dispute is addressed by the court.

“This was the nub of the question that was directed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mohammed Tanko, by Senator Abaribe during the Senate confirmation hearing of the CJN which Nigerians saw on social media.”

The lawyer called for a comprehensive review of the electoral system.