{"id":4695,"date":"2026-10-31T05:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/31\/2027-okorocha-never-contested-imo-west-primary-uzodimmas-aide\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T05:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:46:22","slug":"2027-okorocha-never-contested-imo-west-primary-uzodimmas-aide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/31\/2027-okorocha-never-contested-imo-west-primary-uzodimmas-aide\/","title":{"rendered":"2027: Okorocha \u2018never contested\u2019 Imo West primary \u2013 Uzodimma\u2019s aide"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Okorocha\"<\/p>\n

By Omeiza Ajayi \u2013 ABUJA<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Deputy Chief of Staff to Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, Chief Enyinna Onuegbu, has said former Governor Rochas Okorocha never took part in the All Progressives Congress APC primary for Imo West Senatorial District, which a Federal High Court in Abuja has now ruled he won.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/strong> Orlu Senatorial Seat:\u00a0War in Imo as Okorocha battles Uzodimma<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>Onuegbu, a lawyer, spoke on Friday evening on Arise News, monitored in Abuja, in a right of reply to Okorocha, who appeared on the same programme about 24 hours earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cImo APC people never saw Okorocha as an aspirant and he didn\u2019t participate and was not even physically present in Imo State anywhere at any level. Any briefing of stakeholders, any briefing of delegates, any event conducted prior to that primaries, Senator Okorocha was not physically present,\u201d Onuegbu sai<\/p>\n

He asked at what stage Okorocha addressed party members as an aspirant. \u201cAt what stage did he consult? At what stage has he been able to provide evidence of I have been declared winner at any level, ward, LGA or state?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Onuegbu said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the committee that conducted the primary both rejected the documents Okorocha relied on before the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the court, in its own documentation, the processes filed in court, showed that both INEC, the authority that supervised, APC committee that conducted, all denied the documents His Excellency Rochas Okorocha relied on. Before the court, they all denied them as forgeries, fictitious, and totally fabricated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to him, the court \u201cchose to rely on what applicant filed without averting its mind to the need to resolve the conflict in the documentation brought by both parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Onuegbu argued that where documents conflict in an originating summons, \u201cthe law requires the court to resolve the conflict by oral evidence of witnesses.\u201d In his words, \u201cWhat the law requires the court to do is to call evidence of witnesses so that they can be put to cross-examination.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the Supreme Court had held that \u201cwhen forgeries are alleged, what the court is left to do is to put the parties to the witness box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether Uzodimma\u2019s side had been denied the chance to present its own documents, Onuegbu said that was not the point. \u201cHe put forward documents and we put documents that showed that the authority that did the work disputed what he put. So this contradiction can only be resolved\u201d by hearing witnesses, he said.<\/p>\n

He rejected Okorocha\u2019s reference to \u201cHope\u2019s document,\u201d saying the governor did not run the exercise. \u201cGovernor Hope Uzodimma was not the one who conducted the primaries. He was an aspirant like he was. Governor Hope Uzodimma was not the person who declared the result,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On the time Okorocha took to go to court, Onuegbu cited the Electoral Act. \u201cWhen you tell me that the Electoral Act says any challenge to the result of a primary must be filed within 14 days, and you\u2019re telling me a person who filed 87 days was right because that is when he became aware, it means that he was not aware of his victory too, which he claims,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also questioned why Okorocha had shown no sign of having won. \u201cA person who participated in an election in his senatorial district did not call for celebration in his community, his family, did not celebrate his victory, does not have a video recording, pictures of where he celebrated his victory or where his hand was raised up, something is wrong somewhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you tell me that a man who won did not come to party office to say, party people, thank you for electing me, a former governor of the state, something is wrong somewhere,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Onuegbu said Okorocha bypassed the party\u2019s own complaint channels. \u201cIf you were in any manner denied your victory, the guidelines of the party provide for the steps you would take. There is a panel that goes into complaints after primary election results. There is an Appeal Committee that supervises the conduct of the first panel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDid he exhaust those domestic avenues set up in the guidelines of party primaries of the All Progressives Congress? The answer is no. He sat by in Abuja, concocted his documents and waited for when he would file at his chosen forum,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also dismissed the affidavit filed on Okorocha\u2019s behalf by his son. \u201cHis son, biological son, who is unfortunately being dragged into this, is not an APC member, did not participate in any of the processes and cannot depose to an affidavit in support of facts for which they have gotten a judgment that apparently will be challenged on appeal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pressed on whether his camp accepted that the court had spoken, Onuegbu said the court of first instance was only \u201cthe first rung of the ladder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court has spoken and we are contesting that what the court said is illegal, is not based on law, is not based on the facts of the matter. If we accept, we wouldn\u2019t be on appeal. As far as we are concerned, this matter of what the judgment is, is for the Appeal Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen the capacity of the court from the judgment now. The knowledge of the court is now before the public and will be tested on appeal,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/a><\/p>\n

The post 2027: Okorocha \u2018never contested\u2019 Imo West primary \u2013 Uzodimma\u2019s aide<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Omeiza Ajayi \u2013 ABUJA The Deputy Chief of Staff to Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, Chief Enyinna Onuegbu, has said former Governor Rochas Okorocha never took part in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}