IHEDIOHA VS UZODINMA: PDP May Have Shot Itself In The Leg

Ihedioha: 2 Ways PDP May Have Shot Itself In The Leg As Supreme Court Adjourns Hearing

The Supreme Court threw Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and members of the party and Nigeria at large into another suspense Tuesday, February 18, 2020, when the Apex Court adjourned the review of the case that overturned his victory to March 2, 2020.

I’m not surprised that the case was adjourned. To me, PDP is toeing the path of shooting itself in the leg and I’ll tell you how that is in later part of this post.

What’s Ihedioha asking for?

In a simple term, the PDP candidate is praying the court to overturn the victory he awarded Hope Uzodinma of All Progressive Congress (APC) in the Imo Governorship Election.
His legal team believed that the erudite justices of the highest court in the land erred in the last ruling, as such, calling on the court to review it and do the needful. He wants his mandate back. He wants the court to rescind its earlier decision. Very, interesting.

Before this could be done, PDP made a request…

Before the court adjourned the case, the national body of PDP had called on more justices of the Supreme Court in its letter dated February 14, 2020 (according to TheCable) to from the review process.

This is where it becomes interesting:

Supreme Court is made up of 11 Justices. PDP through its national chairman Uche Secondus asked six justices to withdraw from the case, the court would be left with five if the party’s prayer is granted.

The Apex Court needs seven Justices to hear the matter, according to a legal icon.

What happens if the prayer of PDP is granted in this matter?

According to a human rights activist Femi Falana (SAN), it means the Supreme Court won’t be able to form a quorum to hear the matter again.

If the prayer of the PDP is granted when the matter comes up on March 2, 2020, the court may have no choice other than to throw out the case because of its inability to meet the constitutional requirements of seven to hear the matter.

PDP may have shoot itself in the leg by calling on more than 50% of justices of highest in the land to withdraw from the case.

PDP fear is hinged on the fact that the justices may not be fair in the hearing, sadly, PDP, Ihedioha and their legal teams failed to realise that only Justices of the Supreme Court can hear the matter.

Precedence:

According to Falana, in an interview with TheCable, he made reference to the case of Late Chief MKO Abiola in 1995. According to him, his lawyer filed a similar application against nine justices.

At the time, there were 16 justices in the Supreme Court. His lawyer called for a reconstitution that never took place and the bail for Abiola was truncated.

My verdict:

I don’t want to preempt the ruling of the court, but with the way the matter is going, PDP and Emeka Ihedioha may have shot themselves in the leg.

In the meantime, let’s wait till March 2, 2020, when the court reconvenes.

What do you think about the matter, share your thoughts in the comment section below.


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