A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, ordered the Ebonyi State governor, David Umahi, to vacate office after his defection from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The presiding judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a judgment, also ordered Dr Eric Igwe to stop parading himself as the deputy governor of the state.
Justice Ekwo declared that having defected from the PDP, under which platform they both came into power, the duo are deemed to have resigned from the office and, hence, no longer entitled to be called governor and deputy governor.
The judge said that it was constitutionally wrong for a candidate elected into an office on a platform of a political party to defect to another political party while still holding office.
He said the votes gotten by Umahi and Igwe on March 9, 2019 were PDP votes and not APC.
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that Justice Ekwo had on January 19 fixed Tuesday for judgment in the suit filed by the PDP against the governor and his deputy.
In a related development, the court also sacked 16 members of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, including the Speaker, over their defection from the PDP to the APC.
Delivering judgment, Justice Ekwo ordered the lawmakers to stop parading themselves as representatives of the people after dumping the party on which platform they were elected into the House of Assembly.
Some of the lawmakers include: Odefa Obasi Odefa, Victor Chukwu, Kingsley Ikoro, Joseph Ununu, Nkemka Okoro, among others.
