Supreme Court Stole Imo People’s Mandate – Paul Ede

Nigerian activist, Barrister Paul Edeh, on Wednesday accused the Supreme Court of stealing the mandate of Imo State people.

Edeh in his reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling noted that the apex court sacrificed the mandate following its refusal to review the judgement which sacked Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo State and declared Hope Uzodinma as the governor of the state.

Recall that the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the appeal by Ihedioha and the PDP asking it to review its verdict which sacked him as the Imo State governor for lack of merit.

The activist in his reaction said the different rulings by the Supreme Court indicated that the mandate of the people of Imo State has been stolen.

The activist said: “As it stands the mandate of the people of Imo State has been stolen because in line with that same dissenting judgment he went ahead to state the substance of the case wherein he held that the Supreme Court was misled by Hope Uzodinma to take a decision which ought not to have represented the actual result of what transpired.”

Edeh, however, warned against allowing politics within the judicial sphere.

He added: “I think that it’s necessary to state that we need to be very careful the way and manner we allow our justice system to merge into politics because the position the Supreme Court has taken now is that the decision in Ihedioha vs Uzodinma is what the law is as at date.”

“But how then can you marry the fact that a policeman came to give evidence of results that were collated and not INEC and this has become the true position? It’s wrong for people to write results and present and say this is what it is and when you present it to court you will succeed by virtue of the decision that the Supreme Court has reached.”

“My opinion is that the mandate of the people of Imo State has been sacrificed on the altar of the Supreme Court holding that they can’t review or revisit irrespective of whether the day the decision was reached, the justices were coerced or they carried the decision out of flesh or whatever name called. I think Justice Nweze’s position should be the position of the law so that our justice system can be rejigged to reflect the true position of the law and to ensure that the mandate of the people is never stolen.”