Imo: What INEC says on Supreme Court ruling on Ihedioha

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has not received the certified true copy of the Tuesday Supreme Court Judgment on Imo governorship election.

The apex court had on Tuesday removed Gov Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and declared the All Progressive Congress, APC’s Hope Uzodinma as the Governor of Imo State.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun said 236,000 votes due to Uzodinma and APC from 318 polling units were wrongly excluded and should be added.

Reacting, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja, said that INEC would comply with the judgment once it was served with the enrolled copy of the judgment.

Okoye said that the commission had no problem with issuing Certificate of Return in compliance with a court order, but it needed a copy of the enrolled court judgment to know clearly what it was ordered to do.

He said the commission had a responsibility to obey the judgment of the Supreme Court as the final court of the land.

“We have no problem with issuing certificate of return, but we cannot issue the certificate until when we see very clearly a certified copy of the judgment of Supreme Court or an enrolled order of the judgment of the court directing us clearly and unequivocally on what to do.

“The moment we see it, issuing certificate is a mini venture, we will definitely comply. We have the constitutional responsibility to obey the judgment of the Supreme Court.

“The commission has not been served with a copy of the enrolled judgment so that the commission will know clearly and unequivocally what the Supreme court directed us to do.

“The moment we are served with the court order we will issue the certificate immediately,” Okoye said.