By 247ureports.com
A short video of Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma and his predecessor Rochas Okorocha trading banter at the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign rally has gone viral, but the light-hearted tone hides a hard fight over who is the party’s candidate for the Imo West Senate seat, a battle now before the courts.
In the clip, Okorocha, apparently unnoticed by the governor, asks, “Governor Hope, didn’t you see me?” Uzodimma laughs and answers: “You’re a small boy.” The exchange looks playful, and the two have a long record of public jabs that can be read either way. It also comes days after a Federal High Court in Abuja set aside Uzodimma’s candidacy and declared Okorocha the winner of the party’s May 18 primary.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu delivered the judgment on Thursday, October 29, in a suit Okorocha filed on August 13 against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the APC and Uzodimma. The judge held that the evidence showed Uzodimma did not win the primary held at the Orlu Local Government Secretariat, voided INEC’s August 1 publication of his name, ordered INEC to publish Okorocha’s name in its place and directed the APC to submit it, and restrained Uzodimma from presenting himself as the candidate in the January 16, 2027 election. The APC’s primary committee, led by Rear Admiral Williams Kayode, had declared that Uzodimma polled 230,464 votes against Okorocha’s 1,098, figures the committee stood by in court. Uzodimma and the party had asked the court to dismiss the suit. Uzodimma is expected to appeal, which leaves the ticket in doubt.
Okorocha welcomed the ruling, saying, “If democracy is practised the way it should be practised, 90% of people holding office in Nigeria cannot hold office.” The judgment sits awkwardly beside a separate criminal matter. A Senior Magistrate Court in Jiwa, Abuja, issued bench warrants on September 9 for the arrest of Okorocha, former Senator Ifeanyi Araraume and two others over alleged forgery and use of false documents tied to a result declaring Okorocha the winner, and INEC’s Imo resident electoral commissioner has disowned that document as fraudulent. Those are allegations that have not been proved in court.
The ruling has split the Imo APC. Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Benjamin Kalu’s colleague, Deputy Speaker Amara Iwuanyanwu, told a news conference that “Rochas Okorocha is a cancer, and associating him with our party will cost us at the election. We have nothing to do with Rochas.” The governor’s chief of staff, Enyinnaya Onuegbu, said on television that Okorocha skipped key party activities before the primary and “wants to reap where he did not sow.” In Owerri, leaders from Ideato, Okorocha’s home base, disowned him, pledged loyalty to Uzodimma and accused the former governor of staying away for three years. APC chieftain Onyekachi Onyekwere urged President Bola Tinubu to step in, warning that the feud could hurt the party’s mobilisation in the South-East.
The rivalry is old. It began with the 2019 governorship succession, when Okorocha, as the outgoing governor, backed his son-in-law Uche Nwosu while the party leadership favoured Uzodimma. Nwosu was initially declared the loser, and Uzodimma became governor after the Supreme Court ruled on January 14, 2020 that results from 388 polling units had been wrongly excluded, removing the Peoples Democratic Party’s Emeka Ihedioha. Ties since then have swung between truce and open conflict. Shortly after the 2020 verdict, the two shook hands in public and Uzodimma teased Okorocha in Pidgin, “I don catch you na.” The latest exchange suggests that, for now, both men prefer the cameras to see a joke.
247ureports.com will update this story when Uzodimma files his appeal or INEC responds to the judgment.
