Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi has appealed the Federal High Court, Abuja, judgement which on Tuesday removed him and his deputy, Eric Igwe, from office.
In a notice appeal filed yesterday in Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/920/2021, Umahi and his deputy, who hired 18 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to defend them, stated that the lower court erred in its ruling, praying that it should be dismissed.
The court sacked Umahi, the deputy governor and 16 members of the state House of Assembly for defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
In the appeal document, Umahi and his deputy argued that the trial court set aside the Supreme Court’s decision in Attorney-general of the federation vs Atiku Abubakar (ex-vice president), to the effect that there is no constitutional provisions prohibiting the president or vice and invariably the governor and or deputy governor from defecting to another political party.
They averred that the trial court erred in law when it relied on sections 68 and 109 of the constitution in holding that, having defected from the PDP to the APC, he offended the provisions of the constitution and must vacate his office.
Meanwhile, Umahi has accused the legal team of the PDP of misleading the judge of the Federal High Court and insisted that the state government has serious confidence on the judicial system in the country.
Umahi, who spoke in Abakaliki when thousands of APC supporters paid him a solidarity visit, urged the people of the state to remain peaceful and calm, noting that the judgement rather than brought him down had promoted him to the next level.
He said, “I want to thank Nigerians, I want to thank Ebonyi people. I am just here for two things: one is to urge you all to be very peaceful, another is to tell you that we still have very serious confidence in the judiciary. The PDP lawyers were the people that did the hatchet job. The PDP were the people that were doing forum shopping and I am going to write the NBA to discipline them because you know, the judge was misled.
“In Bayelsa State governorship election, the APC won the election but because there was a defect in the credentials of the deputy governor, the Supreme Court in their wisdom saw that the votes cast in any election, belongs to the candidates and not the party but the lawyers knew about this but they misled the judge.
“I am using the opportunity to let Nigerians know that nobody castigated the judge and we will not do such,” he said.
Umahi said he had appealed the judgement, adding that 18 SANs have been engaged for the appeal process.
