An Ebonyi State High Court has retained former Governor Dave Umahi and former Deputy Governor Eric Igwe of Ebonyi State in office after they were ordered to vacate office by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja. Though, the judgement did not come out of appeal, which should be handled by the Court of Appeal, neither did Umahi and Igwe comply with the Federal High Court judgement, the presiding judge of the state high court, Justice Henry Njoku issued the order pursuant to a motion exparte brought before the court by counsel to the former governor and the deputy, Roy Nwaaeze.
They approached the court pursuant to order 39 rule 3 subsection 3 of the high court rules of the state and under the inherent jurisdiction of the court.
They demanded the court to grant an interim order for seven days and subject to renewal that in view of its judgement delivered on February 28 which takes precedence over any subsequent contrary judgement, the applicants shall not be removed from office.
In the said judgement, the court on February 28 dismissed the suit filed by Senator Soni Ogbuoji and Justin Ogodo challenging the defection of the governor and his deputy to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Justice Njoku, in his judgment, turned down the request that “having defected to APC from the PDP, the party under which he was elected, Umahi and his deputy ought to vacate the office of the governor upon defection and that the plaintiff having come second in the 2019 election, be sworn in instead.” The judge declared that the governor and deputy governor had not violated any provision of the constitution or the electoral act in their defection to the APC.
The court dismissed the suit for lack of merit.