Nigeria’s courts have taken a Senate ticket away from a sitting governor. Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja ruled on Thursday that Governor Hope Uzodinma did not win the All Progressives Congress primary for Imo West Senatorial District held on May 18 and monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission. The court held that former governor Rochas Okorocha secured the majority of votes cast, ordered the APC to submit Okorocha’s name to INEC as its candidate for the January 16, 2027 senatorial election, directed INEC to publish that name, and restrained Uzodinma from presenting himself as the candidate.
The ruling is a direct reversal of the commission’s own position. INEC had published Uzodinma as the winner on August 1, maintaining that the official result showed him polling 230,464 votes against 1,098 for Okorocha. Okorocha’s case, filed in August, claimed he won with 150,780 votes to the governor’s 102,158, and argued that INEC disregarded the reports of its own officials who monitored the primary. The judge held that Uzodinma’s nomination violated sections 29 and 32 of the Electoral Act and the party’s own primary guidelines, called the publication of his name wrongful and unlawful, and faulted INEC for accepting a nomination the court said the documentary evidence contradicted.
The political cost lands on Uzodinma’s next move. The Imo West seat was his planned route from the governor’s office into the Senate in the 12th National Assembly, with a reported ambition to become Senate president; he remains governor, but the trial court has now assigned his ticket to his predecessor and intra party rival, who governed Imo from 2011 to 2019 and held the same Senate seat from 2019 to 2023.
The judgment is a trial court ruling and can be appealed, and the coverage records no response yet from the governor, the APC or INEC on whether they will comply or challenge it. What happens next is administrative as much as legal: whether INEC’s published candidate list for Imo West changes, and how quickly, will show whether the order is being implemented or litigated into the election calendar.