Just in: Ex-Gov. Emeka Ihedioha withdraws from Imo PDP guber primary after being cleared

Few days after he was screened and cleared, the immediate past Governor Emeka Ihedioha of Imo, says he has withdrawn from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary in the state.

Ihedioha said in a letter dated March 27, 2023, addressed to the PDP leadership that he took the decision as “personal sacrifice for a consensus candidate by the party.

Persecondnews recalls that Ihedioha was a few days ago screened and cleared by the PDP to contest the primary election ahead of the November 11 governorship election.

The Supreme Court had in January 2020 sacked Ihedioha as the governor barely seven months in office.

The seven-man panel led by retired Chief Justice Tanko Muhammad unanimously declared incumbent Gov. Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressiives Congress (APC) as the winner of the March 19, 2019 election in the state.

Uzodimma had approached the court that he scored the highest number of votes in the election but that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) returned Ihedioha as duly elected governor.

Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, who delivered the judgment declared that the votes due to Uzodimma were unlawfully excluded from 318 polling units and should be added to his votes.

The apex court considered the submissions of a principal witness who was on a subpoena to present results and held that the lower court erred in its judgment.

Uzodimma was declared as the validly and duly elected governor while the Certificate of return already issued to Ihedioha was withdrawn by INEC as directed and awarded to Uzodimma.