One of the Justices among the 7-man Panel of the Supreme Court, Justice Chima Nweze, on Tuesday, disagreed with the judgment of the six other members and declared Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, winner of the 2019 Governorship election in Imo.
He said that Ihedioha’s application has merit and therefore allowed it.
In a dissenting judgment, Nweze set aside the January 14, 2020 ruling of the Supreme Court and declared Ihedioha as the winner.
Nweze insisted that the application by the PDP and Ihedioha had merit, adding that the Supreme Court had the power to review its judgment.
Recall that the Supreme Court on Tuesday, dismissed the applications brought by Ihedioha, urging it to review its judgment in favour of incumbent Governor Hope Uzodinma for lack of merit.
Justice Olukayode Ariwoola who read the ruling, also said that it is a final judgment of the court.
The suit was thrown out in a majority judgement of six-to-one by the Panel of Judges led by Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad.
However, Nweze maintained that the apex court has the power to overrule itself in a situation where such a judgment was not seen to have met the justice of the case.
According to Nweze, Governor, Hope Uzodinma, misled the Supreme Court in arriving at the ruling which ousted Ihedioha as Governor.
He said that Uzodinma failed to the needed proof that he satisfied the required spread to have been declared the winner of the election by the court.
For this reason, Justice Nweze declared that the decision of the other Judges of the Panel to rule in favour of Uzodinma could keep haunting the nation’s electoral jurisprudence.
