Umahi Assembles 17 SANs To Fight His Sack; Files Stay Of Execution; Threatens Lawyers

By Adesina Soyooye

Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, has filed against the execution of the Court Judgment which sacked him and his Deputy, Kelechi Igwe, from office. He is also threatening to report, for discipline, the Counsels to the Plaintiff, PDP, for allegedly misleading the Hon. Judge, and the PDP for distracting his administration.

The Honourable Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had, on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, sacked both men from office for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the party under which they were elected into office, to the All Progressives Congress, APC. The Judge, who also sacked 15 members of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly for the same reason, said they couldn’t possibly transfer the votes cast for them under the PDP to the APC  because, having jettisoned the PDP, they have also jettisoned the votes.

After an uncouth reaction to  the judgment which has attracted a strong condemnation from the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, and a request for a retraction and apology, Umahi has approached the Court of Appeal to reverse the judgment. He has, also, filed for a stay of execution.

Addressing hundreds of Party faithfuls who trooped to the Udensi Roundabout, Abakiliki  to show him solidarity, Umahi told them that the judgement was in error. He told them that he has already appealed against it with an unprecedented number of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN – 17 of them!

Insisting that he had no regrets defecting to the APC from the PDP, he, in his usual manner said he would  deal with the PDP for distracting him. He also threatened  to petition the NBA, against PDP Counsels for Forum shopping.

Umahi: ” I am still the Governor of Ebonyi State, and I’m still working. I said the Lawyers of PDP are the ones doing Forum shopping, and I’m going to write against the Lawyers to NBA to discipline them because the Judge was misled. The blame was not on the Judge. The blame is on the Lawyers who misled the Judge.”

He denied castigating Justice Ekwo, an action for which NBA has asked for an apology and a retraction from him.

Umahi: “I’m using this opportunity to let Nigerians know that nobody castigated the Judge and we will not because the matter was not before the Judge.

“Today, we have appealed the judgment.  We have done three things. We have gone on appeal at Enugu, and when I say that, we have two  judgements, I say that the judgement in Ebonyi State has equal powers with that of Abuja. We said we will obey the judgment in Enugu State. We will appeal the judgment in Abuja. We didn’t say we will disobey, otherwise we would not have appealed.

“We are before the Appeal Courts in Enugu and Abuja. We have also filed a stay of execution. So, we are still the Governor and Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State.”

Umahi had in his reaction to Hon Justice Ekwo’s judgment on Tuesday, March 8, called the Judge a “hatchet man”,  the judgment, “jungle judgment,” and dismissed it as “null and void”.