Court strikes out Nwosu’s suit to stop INEC from issuing certificate of return to Ihedioha

Candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in the March 9 Imo governorship election, Uche Nwosu, has suffered a second defeat. This is as a Federal High Court sitting in Owerri struck out his suit restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from issuing certificate of return to Imo governor elect, Emeka Ihedioha.

Nwosu had argued that Ihedioha, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), did not meet the required 25 per cent of the votes in 18 out of the 27 LGs in Imo.

However, Justice Tijjani Ringim, in his ruling held that post-election matters are to be handled by the election tribunal.

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Ringim said that “the quest for justice must be in line with the constitution. Post-election matters belong to election tribunal.”

INEC had on March 11 declared Ihedioha winner of the election. Ihedioha had polled a total 273,404 votes to defeat Nwosu who came second with 190,364 votes.

Similar to Nwosu’s petition, some Forty-seven political parties in Imo State have said they will challenge the victory of Emeka Ihedioha in the governorship election in the state.

They have expressed that the declaration of PDP’s Ihedioha is an outright disregard to the nation’s Constitution and a rape of democracy and vowed to seek redress in court.

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