The ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja which sacked Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi and his deputy Eric Igwe “with immediate effect” caused a ripple effect on the state politics yesterday.
Justice Inyang Ekwo said the Governor and his deputy unlawfully defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The judge insisted that having defected from the party by which they won an election and became members of a party that lost, Umahi and Igwe were deemed to have resigned.
In a similar judgment, Justice Ekwo ordered 16 lawmakers in the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, who defected from the PDP to the APC, to vacate their seats.
The first judgment was on the suit numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/920/2021 filed by the PDP.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), APC, Umahi and Igwe were the defendants.
The second judgment was on the suit filed by the PDP.
INEC, Ebonyi House of Assembly Speaker; the House of Assembly, the Clerk of the House of Assembly, the APC and the 16 defected lawmakers, including the Speaker, Francis Ogbonnaya Nwifuru, were the defendants.
