Just In: Court removes 17 Ebonyi lawmakers over defection to APC

The 17 members of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly who defected from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), were on Tuesday removed by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.

Their sack is coming shortly after the high court ordered the Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, and his Deputy, Dr. Kelechi Igwe, to immediately vacate their positions following their defection from PDP to the APC.

Persecondnews.com recalls that the 17 lawmakers had on November 17, 2021, joined Governor Umahi and his Deputy Igwe to defect to the APC.

The court, in a judgment delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, held that the lawmakers, having abandoned the political party that sponsored them, could not transfer the mandate they obtained from the ballot to another political party.

It further held that the Defendants, who became members of House of Assembly on the platform of the PDP, could not justify their defection when there was no division in the PDP.

It held that Section 109(1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution was created to ensure that defectors were not allowed to retain their seats in the House unless such defectors can justify their actions.