UPDATED: Court sacks Uzodimma as APC’s Imo West senatorial candidate, orders INEC to recognise Okorocha

The judge ruled that Mr Okorocha won the APC’s Imo West senatorial primary election, not Mr Uzodimma.

The Federal High Court in Abuja has sacked Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma as the Imo West senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2027 general elections and replaced him with Rochas Okorocha.

The Punch reported that the judge directed Mr Uzodimma, chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, a peer-review group of APC governors, to stop parading himself as the APC candidate for the 16 January 2027 election.

The judge ordered the APC to forward Mr Okorocha’s name as candidate of the party for the 2027 general elections for Imo West Senatorial District.

Mr Egwuatu issued the orders in a suit filed by Mr Okorocha challenging Mr Uzodimma’s nomination.

The judge ruled that sufficient evidence provided by Mr Okorocha showed that he, and not Mr Uzodimma, won the 18 May APC primary election monitored by INEC.

Mr Uzodimma reserves the right to appeal the judgement in the case which is likely to reach the Supreme Court for ultimate resolution.

Mr Okorocha previously served as a senator representing the Imo West senatorial district from June 2019 to June 2023 during the 9th Nigerian Senate.

His election to the senate followed his eight years as governor between May 2011 and May 2019.

His bid to return to the Senate has intensified the longtime rivalry between him and Mr Uzodimma, who became governor through a controversial Supreme Court judgement in January 2020 despite the then-incumbent governor Okorocha backing another candidate to succeed him.

Mr Uzodimma is in his second and final four-year term as governor, which should run till January 2028. If he eventually prevails in the senatorial contest, he must resign as governor and forfeit the remaining six months of his tenure to take up the senatorial seat.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Okorocha, in his suit, challenged the INEC over the publication of Mr Uzodinma’s name as APC’s candidate for the Imo West Senatorial District.

Mr Okorocha filed the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1854/2026 on 13 August, joining INEC, APC and Mr Uzodinma as respondents.

He urged the court to determine whether INEC was not bound by the reports of its officers who monitored the APC primary election duly conducted on 18 May for the nomination of its candidate for the Imo West Senatorial District for the 2027 general elections in which he emerged the winner.

He also prayed the court to hold that the publication of Mr Uzodinma’s name by INEC on 1 August as winner of APC primary for the Imo West Senatorial District for the 2027 poll was wrongful.

Mr Okorocha urged the court to, among his 10 prayers, declare that it was unlawful for the party to forward MrUzodinma’s name to INEC.

He urged the court to declare that it was unconstitutional for INEC to publish, as done on 18 August, Mr Uzodinma’s name as APC’s candidate when it was not him that emerged as the winner of the primary election conducted on 18 May.

He sought an order setting aside or voiding the publication made by INEC on Aug. 1 which declared Uzodinma as the person that won the highest votes in the APC’s primary election held on May 18 to contest as the preferred candidate for Imo West Senatorial District come 2027.

Mr Okorocha prayed the court for an order directing INEC to recognise and publish his name as the duly nominated candidate of APC to contest the poll.

He also sought an order prohibiting Mr Uzodinma whether by himself or through the APC or anyone, however named, from parading himself as the nominated candidate of the party to contest the election.

He equally sought an order awarding cost against the respondents as the noble court may deem appropriate in all the circumstances of the suit.

Mr Okorocha’s son, Amen Rochas, gave an account of how the former governor emerged as the APC’s senatorial candidate in an affidavit filed in support of the suit.

Amen, who described himself as Mr Okorocha’s personal assistant on political matters, said his father, born on 22 September 1962 and a registered APC member, won the direct primary election conducted by APC on 18 May after polling 150,780 while Mr Uzodinma scored 102,158 votes.

He said after the poll, the APC wrote two letters to INEC reporting on the conduct of the primaries with the attached list of contestants and the outcome of the primaries.

Amen said the report of the outcome of the election was made and forwarded by the Head of Department, Election and Party Monitoring (EPM) for the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC for Imo to the commission’s chairman in Abuja.

He averred that the outcome of the party’s primary election as submitted by it to INEC, in respect of the Imo West Senatorial Zone, was not made public upon receipt by the electoral umpire until 1 August.

He said to Mr Okorocha’s shock and chagrin, INEC, rather than publishing the true outcome of the poll which his father won as confirmed by the commission’s own reports, strangely published Mr Uzodinma’s name as the winner.

In his account of the lead-up to the primary election, Amen recalled that the APC advertised earlier this year its schedule of activities and timetable for the conduct of its primaries that would lead to the emergence of its candidates in Imo State for various political offices to be conducted by INEC ahead of 2027.

He said pursuant to APC’s advertorial, Mr Okorocha, who hails from Ideato Local Government Area of Imo State in Imo West Senatorial District and is a financial card-carrying member of APC, expressed interest to be nominated as the party’s flagbearer to the Senate for the Imo West Senatorial Zone.

He said he purchased the Expression of Interest Form (EoI) and the Nomination Form which were duly completed by him and by his nominees as required thereof and submitted to APC.