Defection: Court dismisses PDP’s suit against Ayade

CITING the new judgment of the Enugu division of the Court of Appeal on defection, a Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday refused to declare vacant the governorship seat of Ben Ayade of Cross River State, over his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). 

Justice Taiwo Taiwo departed from his earlier judgment and held on to the decision of the Court of Appeal delivered on April 1 to the effect that defection is not an offence under the Nigerian constitution for now. 

The judge held that governors and their deputies can only be removed from office in line with Sections 180, 188 and 189 of the 1999 Constitution which stipulate that elective office holders can only be removed from office on account of death, resignation or impeachment. 

Justice Taiwo said that since defection is not one of the constitutional provisions to remove any governor, no court has power to insert such into the supreme law. 

He agreed with the submissions of the counsel to the governor, Chief Mike Ozekhome, that judicial precedents of a higher court must be followed by a lower one and be applied in similar matters so as to avoid judicial rascality and anarchy. 

The court held that although parties and facts in matter that led to the Court of Appeal’s new decision are fundamentally different from those before it except on defection alone, the application of judicial precedent must be followed and in fact, be binding on lower courts. 

He said, “In the instant case, since defection is not one of the conditions listed in the 1999 Constitution and since court cannot enact law or insert a new law into the constitution, I abide by the provisions of Sections 180, 188 and 189 to the effect that governors and deputies can only be removed from office on either death, resignation or impeachment.” 

The judge agreed with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that votes belong to political parties and that it was immoral and improper for an elected governor to move such votes to a party that lost in the same election but held that such is not an offence known to any law for now. 

He, therefore, refused to grant the request of the PDP to declare the governorship seat of Ayade and his deputy vacant in view of the Court of Appeal’s new decision that defection is a moral burden and not an offence. 

Justice Joseph Kayode Oyewole of the Court of Appeal, Enugu division, had, in a judgment delivered on April 1, 2022 held that defection is not an offence known to any law but a mere exercise of freedom of association as enshrined under Section 40.

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