Imo West: APC rejects court ruling against Uzodimma

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Imo State, on Friday, condemned and rejected the Thursday ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja on the Imo West (Orlu Zone) contest urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the former governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, as the duly elected senatorial candidate for the party in the zone.

At a press conference organized by the 12 LGA APC chairmen and led by the state party chairman, who also hails from the area, Chief Austin Onyedebelu, they described the ruling as “a blatant travesty of justice”.

According to the Imo APC chairmen, “We called this press conference because yesterday the people of Imo West Senatorial District were robbed in Abuja. As officials of the All Progressives Congress who conducted the primary elections that produced our candidate, His Excellency, Senator Hope Uzodimma, we owe Nigerians all the facts of what happened.

“On Thursday, October 29, 2026, Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, quashed the candidature of Her Excellency, Senator Hope Uzodimma, as the APC candidate for Imo West and ordered INEC to recognize Owelle Rochas Okorocha in his place. By that ruling, a man who polled 1,098 votes in our primaries received a ticket won by a man who voted 230, 464.

“We speak as APC chairmen of the twelve local government areas that make up Imo West: Orlu, Orsu, Oru East, Oru West, Ohaji/Egbema, Oguta, Ideato North, Ideato South, Isu, Njaba, Nkwerre and Nwangele. With us are the chairmen of the 137 wards of Orlu area. We were the field officers of those primaries. We mobilized members, supervised accreditation, observed the votes cast and counted and observed the accredited officials signing the results. We therefore reject this ruling in its entirety because it is a blatant travesty of justice.

“The mandate of Imo West belongs to the APC members who voted on May 18, 2026, and we will defend it by every legal means at our disposal. This ruling is a political robbery in legal guise, the latest installment of a satanic plan hatched by politicians in Abuja against the South East, with Rochas Okorocha as their errand boy, and we are here today to expose it.”

Onyedebelu further explained that the APC held the Imo West senatorial primaries on May 18, 2026 under the supervision of the party and monitoring of INEC, whose officers were present across the district and submitted their reports.

“Governor Hope Uzodimma polled 230,464 votes and Rochas Okorocha 1,098. That margin of over 229,000 votes came from party members in all twelve local government areas, and no one who was on the ground that day challenged it.

“INEC has published the name of Governor Uzodimma as our candidate on August 1, 2026,” he said.

He revealed that “APC provides a primary election appeals committee for any aspirant who believes he or she has been wronged. Okorocha has not filed any petition before that committee and has raised no objections anywhere within the party. Under our rules, and in the ordinary understanding of politics, an aspirant who walks away from the appeals process has accepted the result. He waited almost three months, until August 13, 2026, and then filed a suit in the Federal High Court of Abuja away from the members who voted.

“Shortly thereafter, a document began circulating on social media purporting to be the result of our primaries and crediting Okorocha with 150,780 votes. INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner in Imo State, Chukwuemeka Ibeziako, described it as fraudulent and fictitious. INEC has written to the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services, attaching the authentic result to the forged one and asking both agencies to investigate. More In put simply, INEC handed over to the police a forged result sheet bearing Okorocha’s name, and a court has now handed over to that same man our ticket Let us say without apology that this forgery did not just come from Okorocha’s head: it bears the distinct fingerprints of his supporters in Abuja, well known to us, who need him in elections by hook or by crook, not to represent the people of Imo West, but to serve the political and unpatriotic interests of his financiers the. South East is for the people of the South East to decide, and the imperial dream of aspiring oligarchs to appoint governors for Igboland the way a landlord allocates rooms will not be tolerated in Imo State There have been numerous attempts aimed at dimming the light of the South East in the next dispensation, including attempts to clandestinely change the rules of the Senate, and they have resorted to a scandalous attempt to deceive and manipulate the holy temples of justice a desperate attempt to stop the emergence of Sua. Excellency the Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma, CON, as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria They prefer to install Okorocha, a clown and the only man in Imo West who does not threaten anyone’s ambition in the Senate.

“Let no one misunderstand our anger. Our grievance is with a small circle of power brokers who seem determined to impose weak, incompetent and unpopular leaders in the South East in an attempt to advance their own selfish political objectives, without appeal to the interests of our people.”

“While reiterating the unwavering loyalty of the party in the State to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Working Committee and the State Working Committee and its absolute respect for the Nigerian judiciary, the chairmen appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whose leadership they support and will continue to support, to look closely at the men behind this project,” adding that “A leopard does not change its spots, and many of those involved have changed sides more often than they have changed their caps. “The elections, the votes of Imo West will be mobilized by those of us on the ground. We intend to achieve them and ask the President not to allow anyone to stand in his way. Those who induced Justice Egwuatu to arrive at yesterday’s ruling killed sleep and will sleep no more.”