Another ’Hope’ to Serve Well for Hope Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State appears to be on a roll with every victory over his political adversaries. In this latest evidence of Uzodinma’s triumphant momentum, he not only got the go-ahead to continue in his capacity as Imo State Governor, but also an award of N500,000. Awesome times indeed for Governor Hope Uzodinma.
Since he was officially declared winner of the 2019 governorship poll in Imo State by the Supreme Court, Governor Hope Uzodinma has faced one form of censure or another. Although this is nothing out of the ordinary for a Nigerian State Governor, especially within the first two years in office, the opposition against Uzodinma has been particularly fierce. Curiously, the most recent of this came from an unanticipated political party.
A gubernatorial candidate of Reform and Advancement Party (RAP), Kingdom Okere, reportedly spearheaded the suit filed against Uzodinma and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). To amplify the wonder even further, Okere’s complaint was that Uche Uwosu—and not Uzodinma—was the actual gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 elections.
(The curiosity and wonder comes from the fact that Uche Uwosu, who is son-in-law to the immediate-past Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, was reportedly never present for any of the Court proceedings.)
In any case, Governor Uzodinma and INEC were not the only defendants in the case. There were 5 others: Imo State Governor, Imo State Attorney-General, APC, Action Alliance (AA), and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
At the height of the judicial hearing before the Abuja Federal High Court, the plaintiff party of Kingdom Okere unexpectedly withdrew the suit and asked Justice Okon Abang—who was presiding over the case—to dismiss the case.
Seeing that Okere’s group had no legs to stand on, the defendant parties of Uzodinma and INEC agreed to dismiss the suit and respectively asked for an award of N8 million and N5 million against Kingdom Okere. Justice Abang agreed to some degree, cutting down the million-naira sums to N500,000.
At the end, both Governor Hope Uzodinma and INEC get to take home N500,000. Moreover, Governor Uzodinma gets to add an extra stripe to his victory coat and remain the majordomo of Imo State.
