Court strikes out suit challenging Umahi’s defection to APC

A high court sitting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital on Monday dismissed a suit challenging the defection of Governor Dave Umahi from the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Chief Sonni Ogbuoji who represented Ebonyi south zone in the Senate between 2015 and 2019, had approached the court seeking Umahi’s removal from office as the governor of the state having dumped PDP and joined APC.

Ogbuoji also prayed the court to declare him governor of the state having came second in 2019 the election.

Delivering judgment on the suit, the presiding judge, Justice Henry Njoku, stated that the plaintiff came through originating summons.

He noted that though the plaintiff did not come through relevant rules of court to institute his originating summons, the court still went ahead in the interest of substantive justice to hear the matter of the propriety of the defection of Umahi from PDP to APC.

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He held that having regard to section 188 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, Umahi did not violate 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 is even wrong to institute criminal or civil proceedings against the office of the governor.

It, therefore, dismissed the suit for lacking in merit and awarded N500,000 as damages against the plaintiff.