Appeal Court dismisses suit seeking to sack Umahi, Deputy

The Court of Appeal in Enugu has on Friday struck out a suit seeking the sack of Governor David Umahi and his deputy, Kelechi Igwe, from office for defecting to a different party.

Umahi and Igwe had in November 2020 defected to the All Progressive Congress(APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Following their defection, the candidate of the APC in the 2019 governorship election, Sonni Ogbuoji, and his deputy, Justin Mbam, approached an Ebonyi State High Court seeking the sack of the governor and his deputy.

The plaintiffs asked the court to declare the governorship seat vacant on account of the two men’s defection from the PDP to the APC.

Ogbuoji and Mbam also asked the court to order that they be sworn in immediately since they came second in the 2019 governorship election.

But the high court in a judgement on February 28 struck out the suit and awarded N500,000 as damages against the plaintiff.

Not satisfied with the ruling, the plaintiffs appealed the decision.

In its judgement, on Friday, the appellate court agreed with the lower court’s ruling on the matter.

The appellate court’s judges, in a unanimous judgement read by Alfa Belgore, dismissed the suit for being inconsistent with the constitution and extant laws of Nigeria.

We will provide details of this judgment later.

However, in an earlier different judgment on Umahi in a similar case, the Federal High Court in Abuja on March 8 declared Mr Umahi’s seat and that of his deputy vacant over their defection from the PDP to the APC.

That case was instituted by the PDP which said it was determined to reclaim its mandate

Delivering judgement in the case, Justice Inyang Ekwo, ordered the governor and his deputy to vacate office.

Mr Ekwo ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to receive names of candidates from the PDP to replace Messrs Umahi and Igwe.

“The votes in any election in Nigeria are to political parties, and not candidates,” the judge held.

The PDP had prayed the court to make a declaration that by defecting from the party on which they were sponsored and elected, both officials should be deemed to have resigned from office.

Mr Umahi and his deputy have appealed the judgment.