Emeka Ihedioha Celebrates His 58th Birthday With Throwback Photos

Emeka Ihedioha (pronunciation) (born 24 March 1965) is a Nigerian politician and businessman. He is the former Governor of Imo State and a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was removed from office as the Executive Governor of Imo state on 14 January 2020, by the Supreme Court of Nigeria which declared the APC candidate (Hope Uzodinma) the authentic winner of the 2019 Imo gubernatorial election.

Ihedioha is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and represented the Aboh Mbaise/Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency of Imo State from 2003 to 2015. He holds a National Honor as Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).

In 2015, Ihedioha served as Speaker of the House of Representatives and subsequent swearing-in of Aminu Tambuwal as the Executive Governor of Sokoto State. He became Governor of Imo State in 2019, winning the Gubernatorial race.

Political career

In 1992, Ihedioha was appointed press officer to the Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Iyorchia Ayu. A year later he was appointed chief press secretary to the Deputy Senate President. Following a military incursion in the polity in November 1993, Ihedioha returned to his communications practice as Chief Executive Officer of First Page Communications. He became Director of Publicity of the newly formed People's Democratic Movement, the purveyor of the Peoples Democratic Party in 1998.

He was appointed special assistant to the Presidential Adviser on Utilities in July 1999, as a special assistant on media and publicity to the President of the Senate in November 1999, and as a special assistant on political matters to the Vice President in September 2001. He won a seat in the House of Representatives as a member representing Aboh Mbaise-Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency of Imo State in 2003.

He was the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015. During this period, he served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives after Tambuwal's swearing-in as the Executive Governor of Sokoto State.

On 9 March 2019, Ihedioha contested for the gubernatorial seat for Imo State under the political platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). On 11 March 2019, Ihedioha was declared Governor-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) sitting in Imo State, after he defeated Uche Nwosu (son-in-law of the incumbent governor) who ran under the Action Alliance Party (AA), with a total of 273,404 votes.

He was removed from office on 14 January 2020 by a Supreme Court judgment.