Supreme Court verdict: Protests in Abia, Anambra

Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia and Anambra states, on Sunday, marched round the major streets of Umuahia and Awka to protest against the Supreme Court’s judgement that sacked Chief Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo State.
Ihedioha, who was PDP’s candidate in the 2019 governorship election, was announced winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The apex court, however, nullified Ihedioha’s election on January 14 and declared Senator Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the rightful winner of the poll.
In Abia, the party faithful, led by the Chairman, Chief Johnson Onuigbo, took off from the party’s Secretariat on Finbarrs’ Road to Ikot Ekpene Road down to Azikiwe Road and back.
The protesters displayed placards with various inscriptions, including: “Return the will of Imo people”, “Injustice to one is injustice to all”, “Supreme Court lacks the power to appoint a governor”, and “Save Nigeria from shame and international embarrassment”, among others.
Addressing newsmen at the end of the march, Onuigbo said: ”We are gathered here today to express our anger to the world over the Supreme Court’s judgement.
“As far as we are concerned, the judgement is wrong and we demand that it should be reversed because it is a rape of our democracy and a miscarriage of justice.
“What we are doing here today is happening in all the states of the country because injury to one is injury to all.”
The party chairman expressed the hope in the judiciary reversing itself, pointing out that as humans, judges were bound to make mistakes.
“They made the mistake by denying the people their votes. It is an attempt to destroy our nascent democracy,” he further said.
Also in Anambra, the state Chairman, Chief Ndubuisi Nwobu, led other party faithful from the party Secretariat at Udoka Estate on a march to the Federal and State High Court complexes in Awka.
Addressing the crowd of party supporters, Nwobu described the ruling on Imo election as “a travesty of justice and a bad precedence for the judiciary as the last hope of the common man.”
He said the Supreme Court had earlier voided the nomination of a candidate because his name appeared as dual candidate of APC and Action Alliance.
He, therefore, wondered why the same court would declare Uzodimma victorious on APC platform.
He said though the Supreme Court was infallible, the people acting on its behalf were not immune from mistakes.
He, therefore, called on the court to toe the path of honour by taking responsibility for its mistakes and reversing itself.
In a remark, Mr Oseloka Obaze, who was the party’s governorship candidate in 2017, said they were only peacefully asking the Supreme Court to revisit the judgement, own responsibility and reverse itself for posterity sake.
“We accept that men and women in the Supreme Court are human beings, we accept that they have made a mistake, we expect them to be able to correct themselves.
“The danger we face is that any day the people cannot trust the judiciary, then this country is finished and we will not allow that.
“The constitution says the Supreme Court verdict is final but it did not say that the judges are infallible. They must find the courage to reverse themselves,” Obaze said.