Former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to recognise him as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Imo West Senatorial District in the 2027 general election.
Okorocha, who represented Imo West in the Senate from 2019 to 2023, is challenging the nomination of incumbent Governor Hope Uzodinma as the party’s candidate for the senatorial seat.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1854/2026, was filed on August 13 by Okorocha’s lawyer, O.J. Aboje, with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Uzodimma and the APC listed as defendants.
Okorocha is challenging INEC’s publication of Uzodinma’s name as the winner of the APC senatorial primary conducted in May.
Uzodinma was declared the winner of the primary by Williams Kayode, chairman and returning officer of the 2026 Imo APC National Assembly Primary Election Committee, with 230,464 votes.
In his suit, Okorocha is asking the court to determine whether INEC is bound by reports submitted by its officials who monitored the May 18 primary.
He is also challenging Uzodinma’s eligibility to contest the election while serving as governor, citing Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution, which bars a sitting governor from holding another executive office or paid employment.
Uzodinma began his second term as governor in January 2024 and will remain in office until January 2028. The 11th National Assembly is scheduled to be inaugurated in June 2027, meaning that the governor will still be in office.
But a source close to Uzodinma said there was the likelihood that he would vacate office for the deputy governor to complete his second term.
Okorocha is asking the court to declare INEC’s publication of Uzodinma’s name unconstitutional and void, arguing that the governor did not emerge as the valid winner of the APC primary.
He is further seeking an order directing INEC to recognise and publish his name as the APC’s duly nominated candidate for Imo West.
The former governor also wants the court to restrain the APC and anyone acting on their behalf from presenting the governor as the party’s candidate.
In an affidavit filed in support of the suit, Amen Rochas, Okorocha’s son, alleged that the APC conducted a direct primary on May 18 in which his father polled 150,780 votes against Uzodinma’s 102,158 votes.
The suit is therefore seeking a judicial determination of who was validly nominated by the APC to contest the senatorial election in 2027.
