‘HE HAS NEVER WON AN ELECTION’: OKOROCHA ALLEGES FORGED DOCUMENTS BEHIND UZODIMMA’S TICKET

Former Imo governor Rochas Okorocha has won the APC’s Imo West Senate ticket in court and says Governor Hope Uzodimma has never won an election.

The Okorocha Uzodimma Imo West fight now pits a court judgment against a political claim about the governor’s past.

ValidViewNetwork reports that the judgment is appealable and that nothing in the coverage seen carries Uzodimma’s reaction.

THE JUDGMENT

Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja delivered the judgment on Thursday, 29 October 2026. He held that the evidence before the court established that Uzodimma did not emerge as the valid winner of the APC Imo West senatorial primary of 18 May 2026.

The judge set aside INEC’s August 1 publication of Uzodimma as the APC candidate and ordered the commission to restore Okorocha’s name. He also ordered the APC to forward Okorocha’s name to INEC and directed Uzodimma to stop parading himself as the candidate for the 16 January 2027 election.

Okorocha filed the suit against INEC, the APC and Uzodimma.

WHAT CAME BEFORE

Before the judgment, INEC had maintained that Uzodimma won the primary. It also asked security agencies to investigate a document circulating on social media that named Okorocha as the winner.

The court has now taken the opposite view.

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OKOROCHA’S REACTION

In a television interview, Okorocha said Uzodimma has never won an election in his life. He alleged that documents submitted in support of Uzodimma’s candidacy were forged and that earlier results were manipulated.

He said the judiciary was constrained by the evidence put before it.

A caution on the claims. The reports seen do not say the court declared any document forged. It should be noted that Okorocha’s allegations about earlier victories are his claims, while the court’s findings concern the validity of the APC nomination.

WHAT THE RECORD SHOWS

The claim that Uzodimma has never won an election meets a long record. On 14 January 2020, the Supreme Court declared him duly elected governor, holding that results from 388 polling units were wrongly excluded.

INEC had earlier declared PDP’s Emeka Ihedioha the winner, and Uzodimma was originally shown in fourth place. Okorocha uses that history as the base of his argument.

In 2023, INEC declared Uzodimma re-elected with 540,308 votes against 71,503 for the PDP’s Samuel Anyanwu.

The governorship tribunal affirmed that victory. The Supreme Court later upheld it unanimously. Whatever one thinks of 2020, the 2023 result has passed through every court.

POLITICAL FALLOUT

ValidViewNetwork reports that both men sit on Tinubu’s campaign council, so the clash could strain APC unity in Imo. A ruling party cannot easily field one candidate in public and another in court.

WHAT NEXT

INEC has to decide how to comply, and Uzodimma can appeal. A Senate ticket is a prize that courts often decide for months. The Okorocha Uzodimma Imo West dispute will turn on the appeal, not on what either man says about the other’s past. ValidViewNetwork reports