Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), has threatened to commence a global protest following the judgement delivered by the Supreme Court overturning the victory of former governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and enthroned Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
National Coordinator, HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, at a press briefing, recently in Abuja, said that if the matter was swept under the carpet, it would destabilise Imo State for a very long time.
Onwubiko insisted that the case should be reviewed not necessarily installing Ihedioha but that the Supreme Court should look for a way to correct the “mistake” since Ihedioha is already challenging the verdict.
“If nothing is done, we will launch a global campaign to draw the attention of various international bodies (not Africa) to alert the world of what is happening in Nigeria because subsequent elections could be undermined by the judiciary, civil defence, customs, immigration and prison warders to man polling booths, write results, tendered it and even if INEC rejects it, what you need to do is to buy over the judiciary and the person could carry the day. The results tendered were not verified,” he said.
Onwubiko, also claimed that the 7-man panel that gave the judgement in favour Governor Uzodinma are jostling to still be appointed to review the case presented by Ihedioha through his attorney, Kanu Agabi, to enable them to validate their mistake.
The “panel that sat on the judgment must never be allowed to hear the review application. If Trump could have been impeached by the Congress for making a call, how much more we will allow the judiciary to undermine democracy. INEC said the results were canceled due to over-voting and violence. How can the court be the one to award the result? The panel must never be allowed to sit for the matter.
In his papers before the apex court seeking for the setting aside of the judgment, Agabi observed that “the beneficiary of the judgment, Governor Hope Uzodinma, failed to plead the votes scored by all the parties in the 388 affected polling units, as it was only the votes scored by him that were pleaded,” an omission he said, “rendered the petition incompetent.”
NAN