Former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has taken the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Hope Uzodimma and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to court over Uzodimma’s emergence as the party’s candidate for the Imo West Senatorial District in the 2027 election.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1854/2026, was filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja on August 13, 2026, through Okorocha’s lawyer, O.J. Aboje, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
Okorocha, who governed Imo State from 2011 to 2019 and represented Imo West in the Senate between 2019 and 2023, is challenging the outcome of the APC senatorial primary conducted on May 18.
At the primary, Williams Kayode, chairman and returning officer of the APC’s 2026 Imo National Assembly Primary Election Committee, declared Uzodimma winner with 230,464 votes.
Okorocha, however, disputes the result and is asking the court to recognise him as the party’s duly nominated candidate. His camp alleges that the primary produced Okorocha as the winner, with 150,780 votes against Uzodimma’s 102,158 votes.
Beyond the disputed primary result, Okorocha is questioning whether INEC could lawfully publish Uzodimma’s name while he remains governor of Imo State. He cited Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution, which bars a governor from holding another executive office or paid employment while in office.
Uzodimma began his second term as governor in January 2024, meaning his current tenure is expected to run until January 2028. Okorocha argues that this would overlap with the inauguration of the 11th National Assembly scheduled for June 2027.
The former governor is therefore asking the court to void INEC’s publication of Uzodimma as the APC candidate and direct the electoral commission to recognise and publish his own name. He is also seeking an order preventing Uzodimma from presenting himself as the APC’s senatorial candidate.
An affidavit supporting the suit was deposed to by Okorocha’s son, Amen Rochas. The affidavit alleges that Uzodimma purchased the APC nomination form despite his existing gubernatorial tenure.
The case places the disputed APC primary result and the constitutional implications of a sitting governor seeking a Senate seat at the centre of another major political battle in Imo ahead of the 2027 elections.
