By Yemi Oyeyemi, Abuja
With less than eight months in office, Emeka Ihedioha has been sacked. The Supreme Court on Tuesday removed Ihedioha as Governor of Imo State on the ground that he did not score majority of the lawful votes in the March 9 governorship election .
In his place, the apex court ordered that Senator Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressive Congress (APC) be immediately sworn-in as the duly elected governor of the state to take over from ihedioha.
In a landmark judgement delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the apex court agreed that results in 388 polling units were unlawfully excluded during the collation of the final governorship election results.
Justice Kekere-Ekun said with the result from the 388 polling units , the APC governorship candidate polled majority lawful votes and ought to have been declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral commission, INEC.
Justice Kekere-Ekun in the judgment set aside the judgment of the Imo State Election Petition Rribunal and that of the Court of Appeal both of which had refused to recognize and accept the votes of the 388 polling units as being unlawfully excluded in the general collation.
Uzodinma and APC had in their appeal pleaded with the apex court to review the judgment of the two lower courts against them and restore their victory in the March 9 governorship election.
The two apellants maintained that the unlawful exclusion of votes from 388 polling units denied them victory in the election.