UZODINMA: How Low Can Imo PDP Descend In Fighting The Supreme Court?

By James Udemba

Ever since the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State lost the governorship election in January this year, the members have been behaving like bulls let loose in a china’s shop.

Like demented animals baying for blood, they have vowed to destroy everything and anything on their path in the vain hope of regaining the lost seat.

In their warped reasoning, it has never occurred to them that they filched the coveted seat last year when Prof. Francis Otunta and INEC fraudulently returned Emeka Ihedioha as the winner as against the grains of the law. Because Ihedioha and Otunta were not sanctioned for that stolen mandate which the Supreme court recovered and restored to the rightful winner, Hope Uzodinma of APC, those in Imo PDP have refused to be sober.

Goaded by vaulting ambition and buoyed by fatalistic indignation, both Ihedioha and the PDP returned to the Supreme Court asking it to re-sit over its own judgment. Short of throwing the books at the PDP and its candidate, the Supreme Court stood by its judgment that Uzodinma indeed is the rightful winner of that election. Before the historic judgment, PDP had sought to damage the image of the justices and the apex court.

In a vicious propaganda unprecedented in election petitions in Nigeria, PDP descended on the Supreme Court and openly accused it of selling out to APC and Hope Uzodinma. But because the justices are insulated from joining the market square type of gossip and exchanges which the PDP is adept, their Lordships maintained a studied silence. After all, their judgment which was arrived at after examining the merits of Uzodinma’s case remains final.

As arrogant as ever, Emeka Ihedioha refused to congratulate the winner. Instead his cohorts vowed that they will make Imo state ungovernable for Hope Uzodinma and the APC. True to their threats, they didn’t stop at mere propaganda of distracting the government, they threw decency overboard and engaged in physical violence of vandalizing government’s property including the recently rehabilitated Owerri water works which saw the citizenry enjoying public water supply for the first time in 20 years. They also carried out physical attacks on the convoy of the state governor apart from sponsoring daily protests of fake pensioners. Unfortunately for them, the government completely ignored them, concentrating instead on delivering democracy dividends to the people.

But like the sadists that they are, the Imo state chapter of PDP started looking for another legal window to unseat the governor whom they derisively referred to as Supreme Court governor. From procuring an inconsequential political party to seeking to bribe a High Court Judge, PDP now sought to get the courts to declare that Uzodinma was not actually the candidate of APC in that election. Crying more than the bereaved, Imo PDP sought to get through the back door what it lost in the open. Such desperation and naked lust for power have continued to confound right-thinking members of Imo society.

Ironically, the same Supreme Court that Imo PDP denigrated and impugned on its integrity is the same temple of justice that they seek refuge. If they had filed their processes and allowed the law to take its course even when they lose again as expected, nobody would have begrudged them their folly. But no, the leopard will never change its spots. The charlatans want to take over the job of the Supreme Court including empanelling panels and even setting dates for hearing!

In fact, nobody expected Imo PDP to descend this low by impersonating the Supreme Court and making mockery of the justices. But that’s exactly what happened over the weekend when in their PDP WhatsApp platform, members of the party announced that the Supreme Court has set up a six-man panel to hear the Imo governorship case next week. They had earlier touted October 06, 2020 as the date which turned out to be false. Even when a member wisely pointed out that panels of Supreme Court are always odd number of either five or seven and never even number of six as the message indicated, a member of the party who holds a national office and is a local newspaper publisher, retorted that it didn’t matter. According to him, what was paramount was to keep the government distracted and citizenry confused and misinformed.

In other words, this confirms the claim of government that PDP is not only out to destabilize the Uzodinma’s administration but would not care about the collateral damage in such a satanic exercise. Dragging the name of the Supreme Court to the mud is just one of such. Painting the justices as serial bribe takers on the payroll of the APC is another. Risking a jail term for impersonation, perjury and criminal libel appears not to bother the perpetrators of this heinous evil.

But the Coalition of Imo Youths for Good Governance is really worried over the antics of Imo PDP and has therefore issued a stern warning to the members to desist forthwith from impersonating and ridiculing the Supreme Court and the justices. It noted that the recent circulation of a false news in Imo PDP’s WhatsApp platform shows that the members are all out to discredit the apex court and make Imo state ungovernable for Gov Hope Uzodinma and the APC.

According to the group, it was the height of political rascality and childish posturing for PDP to present the apex court as a biased umpire while at the same time seeking to get justice from it. “We condemn this barefaced hypocrisy and an attempt at insurrection against one of the pillars of democracy in our country. Those behind this show of shame must desist else they will face the full wrath of the law”. It is my hope that Imo PDP will heed this timely warning and quickly let go of this madness of malaria induced dream to unseat Uzodinma.

Udemba wrote from Owerri