BY AUSTIN UGANWA<\/p>\n
Imo State Governor, Rt. Hon\u00a0 Emeka Ihedioha last Saturday in Abuja High
\nCourt, Jabi recorded a second victory appropriate to consolidate his
\nregime. In a unanimous decision, Justice Mallami Umar-Dogondagi \u2013led
\nImo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal affirmed him as the
\nvalidly elected governor of the state in so doing upholding his
\ndeclaration on March 9 this year by the independent National Electoral
\nCommission as the winner of the gubernatorial election in the state<\/p>\n
The authentication of Ihedioha\u2019s victory by the three-member\u00a0 tribunal
\nwhich many Imolites believe is an endorsement of the people\u2019s will was
\nsequential. It flowed from the\u00a0 panel\u2019s months of\u00a0 painstaking
\nexamination and reexamination of the motions, petitions and applications
\nbrought to it by Ihedioha\u2019s three major rivals in the election: Uche
\nNwosu of Action\u00a0 Alliance, Senator\u00a0 Ifeanyi Araraume of All Progressives
\nGrand Alliance and Senator Hope Uzodinma of All Progressives Congress.<\/p>\n
The three litigants approached the tribunal on diverse reasons. Senator
\nHope Uzodinma ,\u00a0 the APC candidate who came a distant fourth in the
\nelection curiously requested the tribunal to declare him winner of the
\nelection claiming to have won the majority of the legitimate votes and
\nsecured the mandatory one quarter of the votes cast in at least two
\nthirds of the 27 Local Governments Areas in the state.\u00a0 Senator
\nArarume\u2019s fundamental grouse was that the election was flawed on
\naccount of alleged\u00a0 \u00a0 malpractices, irregularities and corrupted
\ntendencies. Unlike Uzodinma that opted to be declared winner, Araruma
\nand Nwosu\u2019s solicitation was for the cancellation of the election and
\na fresh one to be conducted.<\/p>\n
The three-man panel\u00a0 dismissed the three petitions. The panel which
\nearlier sat\u00a0 in Owerri, the Imo State capital\u00a0 \u00a0for about three months
\nbefore moving\u00a0 to the Abuja High Court\u00a0 in Jabi for the judgment\u00a0 held
\nthat the three petitions challenging the declaration of Ihedioha of the
\nPeople\u2019s Democratic Party(PDP) as the winner of the governorship
\nelection, lacked merit. While delivering the judgment, the tribunal
\nchairman, Justice Mallami Umar-Dogondagi affirmed that the petitioners
\ndid not establish their complaints against Governor Ihedioha submitting
\nthat the petitioners failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on
\nthem by the law.<\/p>\n
The judgment is historic in many respects. First, it shows the extent to
\nwhich the judiciary can demonstrate courage, in so doing, bringing
\njustice to bear. As a result, the landmark decision of validating
\nIhedioha\u2019s election\u00a0 has rekindled people\u2019s confidence in the
\njudicial system which many had hitherto viewed and assessed with
\napprehension. Fundamentally, the judgment inherently and judiciously
\nreinforced the will of the people which they demonstrated March 9 when
\nthey altruistically entrusted their mandate in Ihedioha.<\/p>\n
This is instructive in the heightened manner Imo people were overjoyed
\nover the judgment. For instance, at the High Court in Jabi, Abuja where
\nthe judgment was delivered a large number of Imo people who travelled
\nall the way from the state besieged the court to enlist their solidarity
\nfor Ihedioha. They\u00a0 jubilated and chorused victory songs at the end of
\nthe tribunal session when they learnt the outcome. Back home,\u00a0 Owerri,
\nthe state capital went agog on that eventful Saturday night.\u00a0 Hordes of
\neuphoric youths and women thronged to the streets to express their
\nexcitement while many others ended up in popular drinking joints in the
\ncity to celebrate. Understandably,\u00a0 the opposite\u00a0 \u00a0naturally would have
\nbeen the case if the will of the people and justice were perceived to
\nhave been subverted in the judgment. The state would have\u00a0 been worse
\nfor it.<\/p>\n
Although Ihedioha has been able to record uncommon accomplishments
\nwithin the short period of his regime as seen in the flagging off of the
\nrehabilitation and construction of 14 urban roads projects and 381 rural
\nroads at a total cost of N38b among several other signature milestones,
\nthe tribunal decision will certainly have a far-reaching impact on
\naccelerating the governor\u2019s performance even further and higher. Maria
\nMbakwe, a popular women leader drove this point home more succinctly
\nwhen she led Imo women on victory march. According to her, the victory
\nhas the inclination to reducing distractions from the opponents thereby
\nenabling the governor to fast-track the pace of development in the
\nstate.<\/p>\n
This perhaps explained the olive branch Ihedioha extended to his rivals
\nafter the judgment, encouraging them to join him in the onerous task of
\nrebuilding the state. \u201cI call on all Imolites across party and opinion
\ndivides, especially my opponents in the last election to join hands with
\nus as we make Imo great again. For me, there is no victor and no
\nvanquished\u201d, he submitted. Accordingly, the earlier Nwosu, Araruma,
\nUzodinma and others on the opposing divide buy into this peaceful,
\npatriotic and welcoming call for Imo renaissance the better for the
\nstate.<\/p>\n
DR. AUSTIN UGANWA, SENIOR SPECIAL ASSISTANT, IMO STATE GOVERNMENT WRITES
\nFROM OWERRI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BY AUSTIN UGANWA Imo State Governor, Rt. Hon\u00a0 Emeka Ihedioha last Saturday in Abuja High Court, Jabi recorded a second victory appropriate to consolidate his regime. In a unanimous decision,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n