Supreme court judgment quashing Uche Nwosu’s candidature is liberation for Imo people

Following the Supreme Court’s judgment yesterday, which declared that the governorship candidate of Action Alliance (AA) in Imo State in the last general election, Uche Nwosu, was not qualified to contest the election because he was not validly nominated, the National Chairman of the Action Peoples Party (APP), Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, has said the state has been finally liberated from Senator Rochas Okorocha’s dynasty.

Ugochinyere further described the judgment as a Christmas gift to the people of the state.He called on the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Crimes (ICPC) to intensify their probe of Nwosu and Okorocha, who is the immediate past governor of the state and Nwosu’s in-law.

Ugochinyere, who was the plaintiff in the case, in a statement yesterday, alleged that the Okorocha dynasty “fleeced and destroyed Imo State for eight years”, adding that the EFCC and the ICPC should take advantage of the judgment “which has permanently robbed Nwosu of his planned immunity and investigate him, Okorocha and their ilk with a view to recovering every Imo kobo stolen by them.” He added: “In a unanimous judgment, the Supreme Court held that by virtue of Nwosu’s double candidature and in line with the clear provisions of the Electoral Act, he was bound to be disqualified from the election and affirmed the judgments of the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

“By this judgment, the Election Petition Appeal against the election of Governor Emeka Ihedioha also before the apex court by Nwosu is also dead and buried. This is because Nwosu was not a validly nominated candidate for the election and therefore lacks the locus to file a petition before the Governorship Election Tribunal.

“The implication of today’s judgment that quashed Nwosu’s candidature is that AA never had any governorship candidate in Imo 2019 governorship election and like the Supreme Court decided in Zamfara, all the votes cast for Nwosu/AA were invalid.”