Updated: Court sacks Umahi, Deputy, 15 Ebonyi Lawmakers over defection to APC

A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, sacked Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, and his Deputy, Dr Eric Kelechi Igwe, over their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressive Congress.

Also, the court ordered 15 members of the Ebonyi House of Assembly, including the Speaker, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to immediately vacate their seats.

The judgment, delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, held that the total number of 393,042 votes Umahi secured at the 9th March 2019 Ebonyi State governorship election, belonged to the PDP, hence could not be legally transferred to the APC.

The court noted that both Umahi and his Igwe’s defection to the APC, not only threw out the PDP, but also the votes that belonged to it.

Justice Ekwo as well upheld that the defections of the 15 lawmakers were unlawful and that having abandoned that political party on which platform they stood election, they could no longer occupy the seats. He declared their seats vacant and restrained them from further parading themselves in the capacity of members of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly.