By Emmanuel Ndukuba
Abuja, May 24, 2024 – The Imo State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on Friday upheld the election of Hope Uzodimma as Imo state governor.
The tribunal which gave its ruling in Abuja also dismissed the petition of the Labour Party (LP) and its governorship candidate, Athan Achonu.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay, the three-man panel of the tribunal held that Uzodimma’s election as Imo state governor complied substantially with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
The tribunal further held that the Labour Party in its petition failed to prove the allegation of overvoting and non-compliance to the Electoral Act.
Last year, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Uzodimma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the November 11 governorship election in Imo state.
Uzodimma scored 540,308 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Senator Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 71,503 votes while Achonu, came third with 64,081 votes. None of the other 15 candidates had up to 10,000 votes.
Dissatisfied with the result, Achonu had approached the court to sack the governor, alleging electoral malpractices in some parts of the state.
