A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has nullified the nomination of Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the Imo West Senatorial District, declaring former governor Rochas Okorocha as the lawful winner of the primary.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, October 29, 2026, Justice Obiora Egwuatu directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately expunge Uzodimma’s name from its official portal and recognise Okorocha as the party’s candidate for the senatorial election. The presiding judge also granted an order of perpetual injunction strictly restraining Governor Uzodimma from parading or holding himself out as the senatorial candidate for the district.
The legal challenge, instituted by Okorocha, exposed irreconcilable administrative contradictions in the nomination filings transmitted to the electoral umpire following the party primary held on May 18. Certified primary election returns tendered before the bench showed that Okorocha secured 150,780 votes to defeat Uzodimma, who garnered 102,158 votes. Justice Egwuatu held that the documentary evidence demonstrated that the sitting governor did not win the monitored poll, describing the party’s certification and onward transmission of Uzodimma’s name as wrongful and unlawful.
The court highlighted that filings presented on the governor’s behalf claimed he emerged through a consensus arrangement, while a conflicting internal document cited an election purportedly held on May 16, two days prior to the official primary exercise.
Speaking after the verdict, Okorocha described the ruling as a victory for constitutional due process. Appearing in a video displaying broken chains to symbolise institutional liberation, the former senator praised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for safeguarding judicial independence, asserting that the presidency had grown weary of administrative impunity in the state.
The Imo State chapter of the ruling party rejected the judgment, announcing that it has initiated steps to challenge the decision at the Court of Appeal. State party chairman Austin Onyedebelu maintained that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the action, arguing that the suit was statute-barred under Section 285(9) of the 1999 Constitution, which stipulates that pre-election disputes must be filed within 14 days of an occurrence.
The judicial intervention alters the political balance in the state ahead of the national legislative elections, reigniting the battle for supremacy between the two long-standing rivals in the Orlu senatorial zone.
