Imo: Supreme Court will not reverse its own judgment--Hope Uzodinma

Imo: Supreme Court will not reverse its own judgment--Hope Uzodinma Uzodinma ABUJA – Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State on Sunday ex...

Imo: Supreme Court will not reverse its own judgment--Hope Uzodinma

Uzodinma

ABUJA – Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State on Sunday expressed concern over the spate of insecurity in Nigeria, warning against playing politics with the situation to achieve selfish ends.

He spoke during an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the ongoing First Plenary Meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria in 2020 with the theme: ‘The word of God: A Lamp to my feet and a light to my path’, in Abuja.

According to him, insecurity was a global problem which is not peculiar to Nigeria. Hence, the need for all citizens, irrespective of political leanings, to join hand with the present government to win the war against terror in the country. The governor said, “Insecurity is all over the world. Terrorism is something that has been around for some time, starting from the attack of America 9/11, up to the incidence in Syria and up to that of Chad and now, North East.

“Before this time, it was a strange kind of crime, it was not here in the country. My advice is that we should not politicize the issue of insecurity; rather, we should buckle up, come together and synergize and attack this incidence, so that at the end of the day, we will create a conducive environment that will allow men and women to go about their businesses without molestation. “We all condemn this insecurity, we all condemn the unnecessary attacks in maiming and killing of people. It is strange in our society, we were not brought up to see these kind of crimes.

But now that it is here, we need to wear our thinking caps, we need to plan together and collaborate with government. “Government alone cannot solve the problem of insecurity. It is a combination of the efforts of government and it citizens, with proper understanding, that we will bring a permanent solution to the problem of insecurity.” On his chances of victory in Monday’s review of the Supreme Court judgment which sacked Ihedioha and brought him to power in Imo state, Uzodinma said,

“I am not a member of the appeal panel, but we pray to God and tomorrow will take care of itself.” The governor added he came with a vision to transform Imo State, hoping that the next one year would speak for itself. “Well, I just settled down. I came prepared and I have a vision that I am going to drive the state to be a model state.

In the next 12 months, you will do the assessment yourself,” he said. Meanwhile, civil society groups in Abuja, the nation’s capital, have appealed to the Supreme Court to rise to the occasion, rekindle hope and demonstrate courage in the interest of justice, by ensuring that the purported errors spotted in its January 14th unanimous judgement on the Imo State Governorship election appeal were reversed not preserved.

Recall the Supreme Court had slated March 2, 2020 for adjudication on an application for the review of the controversial apex court judgement. The CSOs, under the banner of Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy and Constitution, in a joint-statement by its convener, Comrade Ariyo-Dare Atoye, urged the Justices of the apex court to uphold the truth, show fairness, and ensure that justice is not delayed.

The statement read:

“We are delighted that the respected justices of the Supreme Court have not been invited to review its own judgement based an allegation of a judgement obtained by fraud in the case of Imo case, but via a window of justice prescribed by the apex court under order 8 rule 16. “The extremely unique opportunity of order 8 rule 16 made available by the Supreme Court for use in exceptional cases like that of the Imo Appeal, is a validation of the courage of the apex court that only God is infallible and also that the fallibility of the supreme court can be redressed to preserve only justice not error, as the final court.

“We make bold to say that it is more than a national consensus that the Imo judgement was given per incuriam with due respect to the Supreme Court, and since the attention of the apex court has been through a formal application for review drawn to the obvious errors and slips in the matter, it was only a matter of when and not if, for the court to depart from the judgement of January 14, 2020.

“We humbly and passionately appeal to the Supreme Court to review and redress its January 14, 2020 ruling over Imo in the instant case because, an opportunity to depart from the errors made in the decisions may not come in the distant future and these decisions reached would be cited at the lower courts to constrain future elections petitions. “We believe justice is the beacon of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court is last hope of every Nigeria, and therefore it is expected that it would neither preserve error over the Imo matter nor persevere in error.”

Source