As controversies continue to trail last Tuesday's Supreme Court judgement sacking Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as Governor of Imo State, Abia State Chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has staged a peaceful protest, demanding an immediate reversal of the Apex Court ruling.

The Abia PDP warned that if the judgement was allowed to stand, it was capable of truncating Nigeria’s current democracy.

The protest which saw PDP faithful march through major streets in Umuahia, the state capital, took place Sunday afternoon.

The carried placards some of which read: “Judiciary save our nascent democracy”, “Can a tyrant leader allow justice to thrive?” “Judiciary, stop being cowed by General Muhammad Buhari”, “Independent judiciary is sine quanon to justice”.

News Express reports that a seven-man panel of Supreme Court justices last Tuesday held in their unanimous ruling in an appeal brought before them by Chief Hope Uzodinma of the All Peoples Congress (APC), that the appellant won the 2019 Imo governorship election.

The court, by the ruling, sacked Ihedioha who returned by the Independent National Electoral Commission (APC) and was sworn into office on May 29, 2019.

In demanding that the Supreme Court should reverse itself, Abia PDP described the judgement as a travesty of justice and injurious to Nigeria’s democracy.

The party also passionately appealed to the international community to intervene and prevail on the Supreme Court to restore Ihedioha to power to save Nigeria's fledgling democracy, alleging that the Court's ruling was a product of pressure from certain quarters.

Addressing party members after the protest march, State Chairman of Abia PDP, Sir Johnson Onuigbo, said the judgement was not only about Imo but about the survival of democracy in Nigeria.

“Democracy is the best form of government. If anybody destroys it, he has done injustice to this country,” Onuigbo said.

“We are expressing our anger, our annoyance over the judgement given by Supreme Court on Imo State governorship election.

“As far as we are concerned, that judgement is wrong and we demand that it should be reversed, bearing in mind that the judges are human beings, they are bound to err, they are not God. Only God is supreme and only God is infallible. Man is fallible,” he noted.

“We are saying that judgement on Imo Governorship election is a rape on democracy, a miscarriage of justice. It is not fair, it does not confirm the axiom that the judiciary is the hope of the common man” the Abia PDP chairman added.

“So, we plead with President Muhammad Buhari to please leave the judiciary alone.If he wants to return to the military, let him declare so to us. Let him leave our nascent democracy alone.”

According to Onuigbo, Nigeria's founding father’s fought very hard to gain democracy, adding that the party condemns any attempts by anybody or group to destroy Nigeria’s democracy.

“We are demanding that justice must be done. We are concerned because injustice to one is injustice to all.

“We are asking the international community to please intervene to save Nigeria’s democracy,” he said.

He argued that the Supreme Court justices erred by denying Imo people their votes.

“Supreme Court is not meant to appoint a governor. The Imo people elected a governor by overwhelming majority,” he said, adding that “the Supreme Court judgement is injurious to our democracy, it is an attempt to destroy our nascent democracy.”

He insisted the Supreme Court should restore Ihedioha to office because he was the candidate elected overwhelmingly by the Imo electorate.

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