Former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has accused his successor, Hope Uzodimma, of never winning an election in his political career, alleging that his emergence as governor in 2020 followed the manipulation of election results.
Okorocha made the allegation on Thursday night during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today monitored by The News Chronicle, where he reacted to a Federal High Court judgment recognising him as the authentic winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary for Imo West Senatorial District.
The former governor, who had been locked in a political and legal battle with Uzodimma over the party’s senatorial ticket, questioned the governor’s electoral history, particularly his emergence as Imo governor in January 2020.
He recalled that Uzodimma came fourth in the 2019 governorship election before the Supreme Court overturned the declaration of Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner and declared Uzodimma the duly elected governor.
“This was the same thing that happened when one person wrote more than 300 results, causing someone who came fourth to become number one. This man has never won any election in his life,” Okorocha said.
He maintained that the controversy surrounding Uzodimma’s emergence as the APC candidate for Imo West was another indication of what he described as a recurring pattern of electoral manipulation.
Okorocha further questioned the circumstances surrounding the governor’s emergence as the APC candidate for the Imo West senatorial seat, insisting that the latest court ruling had exposed irregularities in the process.
He expressed satisfaction with the judgment, saying it had vindicated him against allegations of forging documents relating to the disputed primary.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Obiora Egwuatu, had ruled that Okorocha secured the highest number of votes in the May 18, 2026, APC senatorial primary and ordered the party to submit his name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its candidate.
The judge also faulted the documentary evidence presented in support of Uzodimma’s nomination, citing inconsistencies in the accounts of how the primary was conducted.
However, Uzodimma’s emergence as Imo governor in 2020 followed a Supreme Court judgment which overturned Ihedioha’s victory after accepting Uzodimma’s argument that results from 388 polling units had been excluded from the final collation.
