That piece of argument published in the NigeriaLawyer platform by one James Udemba and entitled: “Uzodimma: How Low Can Imo PDP Descend In Fighting The Supreme Court“, was simply an insincere vituperation of a sycophantic bellicose hypocrite. If not for the nature of our work, which necessitates the reading of everything in the media, print, electronic etcetera referring to our great party, that work by that bellicose hypocrite, James Udemba, wasn’t worth reading. It was an exercise in yabis, filled with adjectival invectives poured on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State.
You can imagine when a writer decides to address Imo PDP as “sadists”, while referring to a political party that fielded candidate in the 2019 governorship election in Imo State as “inconsequential political party”! Still we mandatorily wallowed through the cesspool of a write up till the end. This rejoinder became necessary to set straight some misinformation by the obviously ignorant and confused author, lest some uninformed or less informed readers and members of the public swallow hook, line and sinker his twisted and distorted report.
First and foremost, Imo PDP has never sued Senator Hope Uzodimma to Court over the lingering altercations, debacles, hostilities, brouhaha and quagmire emanating from the 2019 governorship election in Imo State. Of course, Imo PDP by virtue of their candidate in that election, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha CON, won the election that was held on Saturday, March 9, 2019. That was in accordance with the declaration of valid votes garnered by each of the candidates in the election and the announcement of the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday, March 11, 2019. The governor-elect was His Excellency Rt Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.
After that epic return of PDP to Douglas House, the seat of power in Imo State, after over a decade, Chief Uche Nwosu (AA), Senator Hope Uzodimma (APC) and Senator Ifeanyi Araraume (APGA) approached the Governorship Election Tribunal to seek redress. As it would please the Tribunal, it upheld the verdict by the Tribunal and retained Ihedioha as winner and Governor of Imo State.
At the Tribunal, the suit was a fight against the candidate and not the party per se. Imo PDP was only a respondent by commission as the party on which the candidate contested the election and won. At this Tribunal stage, it was Uzodimma and others that were fighting Imo PDP candidate and the party by extension. James Udemba didn’t mention that because he must have overlooked the origin of the fight and how low Uzodimma went to deploy grand fraud and forgery to torpedo the victory Imo electorates freely gave to Governor Emeka Ihedioha.
After the Tribunal upheld INEC’s verdict, Uzodimma and his gang took the fight against the governor of Imo State and his party, PDP, to the Court of Appeal. And as the Court pleases, after all legal hostilities and brouhaha at the appellate court, the appeal was thrown out for lack of merit and Governor Emeka Ihedioha’s victory was upheld. That was on November 19, 2019 in Abuja.
Yet, Uzodimma and others fought on and took the fight to the Supreme Court, where on January 14, 2020, Uzodimma was made governor atop a mountain of clerical errorrs and evidence of fraud and forgery as far as votes cast and accredited voters etcetera were concerned. James Udemba didn’t mention that Uzodimma descended too low, in fact below lowest levels to compromise the Supreme Court and compel the Apex Court justices to persevere in error and make Uzodimma governor.
From available records, the very first person to describe Uzodimma as “Supreme Court Governor”, was a candidate in the governorship election in Imo State, Barr. Kingdom Okere of the Reform Advancement Party (RAP), who right at the vicinity of the Supreme Court moments after the judgement was declared in favour of Uzodimma was interviewed and he uttered that expression “Supreme Court Governor”!
As a party, Imo PDP hasn’t in any way referred to Uzodimma as “Supreme Court Governor”. Party leaders and members as citizens of Nigeria that are entitled to freedom of expression may in their own ways and times referred to Uzodimma as “Supreme Court Governor”.
In fact, there’s a binding agreement by the Imo PDP State Working Committee (SWC) led by Engr. Charles C. Ugwuh OON, prohibiting the use of that term to refer to Uzodimma. It’s not because there’s anything wrong or derogatory with referring to Uzodimma as “Supreme Court Governor”, else he would have sought legal redress against the originator of the term, but because Imo PDP wants to hold Uzodimma not Supreme Court accountable for whatever happens under his watch in Imo State.
Translating the “Supreme Court Governor” reference to Uzodimma by some people in the global society as a fight against the Supreme Court by Imo PDP was the height of sycophantic hypocrisy by the said James Udemba that was obviously out to bring Imo PDP in the bad books of the Supreme Court. But his mission was failed on arrival because the Supreme Court should be glad that the Uzodimma that it made governor is now globally addressed as “Supreme Court Governor”! It hasn’t ever been used derogatorily! Else, why hasn’t Uzodimma or the Supreme Court sought redress in the Court against the world that now hail Uzodimma as “Supreme Court Governor”?
On the issue of the authenticity of Uzodimma’s candidature in the 2019 Imo governorship election, again hatchet man, James Udemba, failed in his judgement. It wasn’t Imo PDP that sought to get the courts to declare that Uzodimma wasn’t actually the candidate of APC in that election. We would want James Udemba to do his homework away from his arm chair criticism of Imo PDP and discover for himself those that are insistent that Uzodimma wasn’t the APC candidate in that election. He might also find out how on December 20, 2019 the Supreme Court decided and declared that Uzodimma wasn’t the APC candidate in that election, but Uche Nwosu, who was subsequently disqualified by the Supreme Court from the election for being the candidate of two parties, APC and AA.
Then, coming to the request by Imo PDP for the Supreme Court to ensure the enforcement of its judgement on the candidate of APC in the 2019 guber election, it was too unpatriotic of James Udemba to vilify Imo PDP for doing the most right to do before the law. We won’t go into the nitty-gritty of the matter, which in the real sense isn’t a matter of Imo PDP. We would, however, rather let the Apex Court do the needful and determine whether its judgement of December 2019 on the candidacy of Ugwumba Uche Nwosu has been enforced or not.
The aggressive onslaughts by belicose James Udemba and his co-travellers are of no consequences with regards to the provisions of the law. There’s nothing wrong with asking the law to take its full course as Imo PDP has done. But there’s everything wrong to frustrate the law from taking its full course as James Udema and his cohorts are futilely doing with his ill-motivated treatise.
The era of armtwisting the law and judicial officers to persevere in errorr and enter into judgement of injustice must be helped by all citizens to be over once and for all. The 21st Century is almost completing its first quarter. The world, including Nigeria is getting older. James Udemba and Co. take note!
Paschal Mmereikwu Esq. writes from Owerri, Imo State.