Supreme Court and Imo: Case of Justice denied?

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, March 3 ruled in a majority decision of six to one, that it could not re-open its earlier decision that had awarded judgment in favour of Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC), upturning the election of Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as Governor of Imo State. The Court in its decision, held that there is no provision in the Constitution allowing it to review its own decision. The Court said that it lacked the jurisdiction to review its own judgment. The minority decision by Justice C.C. Nweze gave judgment in favour of Emeka Ihedioha saying that the Supreme Court had power to overrule itself as it had done so in the past. It would appear that the six-person decision completely ignored the points raised by Mr. Ihedioha, who had asked the Court to review its judgment on the basis of false results and wrong computations from those results, which warranted Ihedioha’s removal and emergence of Uzodinma as Governor of Imo State. For a lot of Imo citizens, the minority judgment of Justice Centus Nweze underlines their belief that Ihedioha’s case for review had merit. They would feel wronged by the Supreme Court decision.

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