Court dismisses suit challenging Umahi’s defection to APC
[From CHINEDU NWAFOR, Abakaliki]
High Court sitting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Monday, dismissed a suit challenging the defection of Governor Umahi from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Plaintiff, Senator Soni Ogbuoji who was the governorship candidate of the APC in 2019 in Ebonyi State, had through originating summons asked the Court to hold that the defendant, Governor Umahi, having defected to the APC from the PDP, ought to vacate the office, so that he would be sworn-in having come second in the election.
Umahi on November 2020 defected to the APC from the PDP, a platform he was elected Governor of Ebonyi State, citing injustice by the PDP against the South East zone.
The Plaintiff asked the Court determine whether Governor Umahi having defected to APC could still continue to be Governor, having regards to the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act.
But the defendant in his argument through his Counsel, Barrister Roy Umahi, canvassed that the plaintiff was relying on the pre-election/election qualification issues, arguing that there was no provision in the constitution that provides for defection as one of the grounds for the vacation or removal of a person as Governor or as Deputy Governor.
He alluded to judicial authorities of Appellant Courts that had settled the matter.
The Presiding Judge, Hon Justice Henry Njoku, in his ruling, said though the plaintiff did not come through relevant rules of Court to institute the originating summons, the Court still went ahead in the interest of substantive justice to hear the matter of the propriety of the defection of Governor Umahi from the PDP to the APC.
Considering the submissions of both parties, Justice Njoku held that having regard to section 188 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the defendant (Governor Umahi) has not offended any provision of the Constitution or the Electoral Act in his defection to APC.
The Court further held that having regard to section 308 of the Constitution, it was even wrong to institute criminal or civil proceedings against the office of the Governor.
The Court, therefore, dismissed in its entirety, the suit for lacking in merit and awarded Five Hundred Thousand Naira (N500, 000.00) as damages against the plaintiff.
