A certified electoral document submitted as part of the exhibits in a Federal High Court case filed by former Imo State Governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha, has surfaced, showing him as the candidate who won the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial primary for Imo West.
The document, dated June 16, 2026, and certified as a true copy by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja on June 22, 2026, contains what it describes as the “List of Senatorial Election Candidates for All Progressive Congress in Imo State from the Primaries conducted on Monday 18/5/2026.”
In the document, Senator Ethelbert Rochas Okorocha is listed as the successful APC candidate for the Imo West (Orlu) Senatorial Zone, with 150,780 votes.
The same document lists Alexander Mbata as the successful candidate for Imo East and Senator Patrick Chiwuba Ndubueze for Imo North.
The document is now at the centre of Okorocha’s legal challenge over the APC’s Imo West senatorial ticket.
Okorocha takes APC, INEC and Uzodimma to court
Okorocha has dragged the APC, INEC and Governor Hope Uzodimma before the Federal High Court in Abuja over the recognition and publication of Uzodimma as the APC’s candidate for the 2027 Imo West Senatorial election.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1854/2026, was filed on August 13, 2026, with INEC, APC and Uzodimma joined as respondents.
Okorocha is asking the court, among other things, to determine whether INEC was bound by the reports submitted by its officials who monitored the May 18 APC primary and whether the subsequent publication of Uzodimma’s name as the party’s candidate was lawful.
He is also seeking an order directing INEC to recognise and publish his own name as the duly nominated APC candidate for Imo West and an order restraining Uzodimma from presenting himself as the party’s candidate.
The document forms part of Okorocha’s court evidence
The document obtained by News Mirror is significant because it is among the documentary evidence Okorocha is relying on in his challenge.
Court reports confirm that Okorocha tendered exhibits in support of his case, including documents relating to the INEC monitoring of the APC primary. The suit specifically challenges the discrepancy between the result he says was recorded by INEC officials and the subsequent recognition of Uzodimma.
According to the account contained in Okorocha’s supporting affidavit, the May 18 direct primary produced 150,780 votes for Okorocha and 102,158 votes for Uzodimma.
If authenticated and accepted by the court, the document could become an important part of Okorocha’s argument that the result monitored and recorded by INEC officials was different from the result eventually used to recognise Uzodimma.
But APC and INEC dispute Okorocha’s account
The matter is contested.
APC and Uzodimma have rejected Okorocha’s claims. In their court filings, they maintained that Uzodimma won the primary, with a substantially different result from the figures relied upon by Okorocha. A report on the proceedings says their version put Uzodimma at 230,464 votes and Okorocha at 1,098 votes.
INEC has also opposed Okorocha’s case. According to the same court report, the commission maintained that its officials monitored the APC primary and submitted a report indicating that Uzodimma scored the highest number of votes. An INEC official also disputed signing some of the exhibits tendered by Okorocha.
The conflicting accounts therefore leave the court with two materially different versions of the May 18 primary.
Was Okorocha substituted after winning?
The controversy has raised the question of whether Okorocha’s name was effectively replaced by Uzodimma’s after the primary.
Okorocha’s case is built around that allegation, but the claim remains a matter before the court rather than an established judicial finding.
What the available records establish is that Okorocha is relying on documents which he says show that he won the primary, while APC, Uzodimma and INEC maintain that Uzodimma was the legitimate winner.
The Federal High Court is therefore expected to determine which version of the primary result has legal effect and whether INEC lawfully recognised Uzodimma as the APC candidate.
Judgment fixed for October 29
The legal battle has now reached the judgment stage. Following the adoption of final arguments by lawyers representing Okorocha, INEC, APC and Uzodimma, the Federal High Court in Abuja fixed October 29, 2026, for judgment in the suit.
Until the court rules, the conflicting primary results remain disputed.
The newly surfaced certified document, however, adds another layer to the controversy: it expressly identifies Rochas Okorocha as the APC’s successful candidate for Imo West, a position that is at the heart of his challenge to Uzodimma’s recognition as the party’s candidate.
