A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has directed Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma to stop presenting himself as the All Progressives Congress candidate for the Imo West Senatorial election set for January 16, 2027, according to thefact.ng.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu issued the order after concluding that Uzodinma was not the winner of the APC primary held on May 18, which was monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission. The court found that the evidence placed before it showed former Governor Rochas Okorocha secured the majority of votes at that primary.
The judge went further, instructing the APC to submit Okorocha's name to the electoral body as its flagbearer for the district in the 2027 general elections. INEC was also directed to publish Okorocha as the party's candidate, thefact.ng reports.
Why it matters
The ruling removes, at least for now, the sitting governor from a Senate contest in his own state and hands the party's ticket to a predecessor with whom he has clashed for years. It also puts a court, rather than the party machinery, in the position of deciding who carries the APC banner in one of Imo State's three senatorial districts.
Pre-election litigation of this kind is familiar in Nigerian politics. The Electoral Act allows aspirants who object to how a primary was run to seek redress at the Federal High Court, and courts have in past cases ordered parties to substitute candidates or recognise a different winner after finding fault with a primary. What stands out here is the profile of the parties involved: a serving governor on one side and a former governor and senator on the other.
A rivalry that has run for years
The judgment is the newest chapter in a long-running feud between the two men, both of whom have led Imo State and both of whom have operated within the APC.
Okorocha governed the state from 2011 to 2019. He was first elected on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance before moving to the APC in 2013. He subsequently won the Imo West seat in the 2019 general elections and represented the district in the Senate.
Uzodinma, the incumbent, took office in January 2020. His path to Government House ran through the Supreme Court, which reviewed the outcome of the 2019 governorship election in the state. The court set aside the declaration of Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner and named Uzodinma, then the APC's governorship candidate, as the duly elected governor.
Since then, ties between the two APC figures have been tense. They have repeatedly clashed in public over who controls the party's structure in Imo State, and those disagreements have played out alongside the contest for the Orlu Zone, as Imo West is also known — the district Okorocha previously represented.
What the court decided
The case turned on the conduct and outcome of the May 18 primary. Justice Egwuatu held that Uzodinma did not prevail in that contest, and that the evidence supported Okorocha as the candidate who received the most votes.
The orders that followed were twofold. The APC was told to forward Okorocha's name as its candidate for the senatorial election, and INEC was told to publish that name. The governor, meanwhile, was directed to cease holding himself out as the party's candidate for the seat.
The election itself is scheduled for January 16, 2027, as part of the wider 2027 general elections.
What to watch
The immediate question is whether the APC and Uzodinma accept the judgment or take it up on appeal — a step that could suspend or alter its effect and reopen the ticket question before the electoral commission finalises its candidate list.
