General News of Friday, 2 August 2019

Source: dailypost.ng

Imo guber: Hope Uzodinma closes case at Tribunal -

Former Senator representing Imo West Senatorial District and governorship candidate in the 2019 elections, Hope Uzodinma has closed his case at the ongoing Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Owerri.

He closed his case after polling unit agents gave testimony on the 388 polling units across the 27 local government areas of Imo state in the 29th March, 2019 election that was declared in favour of Emeka Ihedioha.

In the case between Senator Hope Uzodinma vs INEC, he averred that 366 results out of 388 were declared by INEC, saying that those polling units which INEC declined announcement were won by the APC.

At the Tribunal on Thursday, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, who was in charge of operations during the 9th March,2019 Governorship Election, also tendered in evidence to the election tribunal, “366 results in Forms EC.8A out of the 388 polling units results excluded from collation in the result declared by INEC in respect of the Imo State Governorship Election of 9th March, 2019.”

Speaking with DAILY POST on Friday, Uzodinma insisted that it was unlawful for INEC to exclude results where he won, saying if they were declared, he would have won with high margin.

“One of the grounds of my petition is the unlawful exclusion of results from 388 polling units spread across the 27 Local Government Areas of Imo State where APC won with high margins.

“If the results of the 388 polling units unlawfully excluded had been collated, I would have been declared the winner of the election,” the former lawmaker said.