Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has said his party deserved the victory handed it by the Supreme Court in the Imo State governorship election.
Oshiomhole explained that APC deserved the judgement based on the ‘facts’ available to the court and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Recall that the Supreme Court had a few days ago nullified the election of Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo State while declaring Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress, APC, winner of the governorship election.
However, Oshomhole in a press conference over the weekend in Abuja described the INEC declaration of Ihedioha as governor of Imo State as fraudulent since the sacked governor never met the required one-quarter vote in two-thirds of the 27 local government areas of the state.
Oshiomhole also accused the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of recklessness and attempt to stir violence among Nigerians since the court’s decision.
He said: “PDP is not only reckless, they believe it is their birthright to benefit from electoral fraud. Courts are bound to interpret laws according to the constitution. No court has the power to bend the 1999 constitution of Nigeria as amended.
“As far as we know, Imo has 27 local government, and Emeka Ihedioha scored two-thirds of the votes in 12 LGs. Two-third of 27 is eighteen. So you have a huge deficit of six LGAs which Ihedioha or anybody else must necessarily have to be declared a winner of a governorship election,” the APC chairman explained as he condemned the state’s Returning Officer, Francis Otunta, for “unlawfully declaring Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo State.”
Oshiomhole stated that the added 388 PUs votes by the apex court were cast at Uzodinma’s senatorial district, Orlu (Imo West), where he was twice elected as senator.
“You are at liberty to ask for those documents, they are not classified. Every political party has the right to inspect election materials but neither did Emeka Ihedioha’s lawyer nor PDP’s lawyer questioned the validity of the votes that were cast in this 388 PUs because they were duly signed not only by APC agents, but by the polling units’ presiding officers as required by the law, as well as other political parties, including the PDP.
“However, because PDP has a reputation for manipulating system, to our shock, the lower court conveniently overlooked these 388 units and proceeded to deal with other units. They made no comments, nobody nullified those units,” Oshiomhole said.
