BREAKING: Ebonyi Governor, Umahi In Fresh Trouble

BREAKING: Ebonyi Governor, Umahi In Fresh Trouble

Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi came under fire yesterday for his attack against Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The judge, on Tuesday, ruled that the governor and his deputy, Eric Igwe, be removed for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Justice Ekwo ordered 16 lawmakers in the House of Assembly, who defected from the PDP to the APC, to vacate their seats.

Faulting the judgment, Umahi accused the judge of being a “hatchet man”, who was “on a mission,” and implied that the judgment was “purchased”.

“We have petitioned him to NJC (National Judicial Council) and we will follow it up to ensure that this man is brought to justice,” Umahi added.

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) demanded an apology from the governor and a retraction of the “offensive” comments.

Its president, Olumide Akpata, described the governor’s comments attacking the judiciary as “disgraceful, undemocratic and completely unacceptable.”

NBA said it was utterly dismayed by the Umahi’s “unfortunate and totally unacceptable” reaction to the judgment.

The statement reads in part: “Umahi…threw caution to the wind and deployed very uncomplimentary adjectives and intemperate language in characterising both the judgment and Hon. Justice Ekwo, including but not limited to describing the judgment as ‘jungle justice’ and His Lordship as ‘a hatchet man’.

“As if these were not enough, Engr. Umahi accused the court of ‘murdering justice’ and also arrogated to himself the judicial powers and magisterial authority to declare the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction as null and void while unashamedly declaring his intention to disregard the judgment in favour of another.

“To put it plainly, this is impunity of the highest order and executive rascality taken too far.”

Akpata said the leadership of the NBA was inundated with calls from well-meaning Nigerians who were outraged by Umahi’s utterances.

“It is for this reason that we condemn without equivocation, Engr.

Umahi’s unfortunate diatribe which, if it had emanated from an average litigant, would still have been regarded as shocking but coming from one who occupies the exalted office of a State Governor, is nothing short of a national embarrassment.

“In the wake of the judgment, one would have expected Engr. Umahi to sue for calm from his supporters and to assure them that all legal and constitutional avenues would be explored to challenge the Judgment.

“For H.E. Engr. Umahi to instead resort to attacking and denigrating the high office of a judge in this unprecedented manner is disgraceful, undemocratic and completely unacceptable…

“We view Engr. Umahi’s reaction to this judgment as being consistent with the current penchant, on the part of those in the executive arm of government, for intimidating the Judiciary whilst taking advantage of the historical reluctance of that arm of government to rise to its own defence.

“In light of the foregoing, the NBA hereby demands an immediate apology from H.E. Engr. Dave Umahi and a retraction of the comments he made against the person and judgment of the Hon. Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court.

“It is also our demand that this apology and retraction be given as much media coverage as the press conference where the unfortunate comments were made.”

Speaking in Abakaliki, the state capital while addressing a crowd of residents who embarked on a solidarity walk for him, the governor said the PDP misled the judge.

He urged them to be calm and law-abiding as he was confident of securing victory at the appeal court.

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He said the judge was misled by PDP lawyers and that he had confidence in the judiciary.

Umahi said: “I want to thank Nigerians; I want to thank Ebonyi people. I was doing my projects inspection when the Deputy Governor called to inform me that Ebonyi people are here.

“I am just here to urge you to be very peaceful and to assure you that we still have very serious confidence in the judiciary.

“The NBA chairman published something and that I said the judge is biased but when we spoke this afternoon (yesterday), we understood ourselves.

“I say that the lawyers of PDP were the people that did the hatchet job. I am going to write to NBA to discipline them.

The judge was misled.

“In the Bayelsa case, there was a defect in the deputy governor’s credentials but the Supreme Court said the votes cast belonged to the individuals, not the party.

“The lawyers knew about this, they misled the judge. So the blame is not on the judge; the blame is to the PDP lawyers.

“I am using this opportunity to let Nigerians know that nobody castigated the judge and we will not.

Umahi, Igwe and 16 members of the state House of Assembly have appealed the judgment.
In two notices of appeal filed by their lawyer, Chukwuma Machukwu Umeh (SAN), Umahi, Igwe and others are praying the Court of Appeal to set aside Justice Ekwo’s judgement.

In the notice of appeal filed for Umahi and Igwe, 11 grounds of appeal were raised, while five grounds were raised in the notice of appeal filed for the 16 lawmakers.

The appellants argued that the trial court erred in law when it held that the provision of Section 308 of the Constitution was not applicable to the case.

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“The Hon trial court was virtually setting aside the Supreme court of Nigeria’s decision in AG Federation v. Atiku Abubakar & 3 ORS (2007) LCN/3799(SC) to the effect that there are no constitutional provisions prohibiting President or vice and invariably the Governor and or deputy Governor from defecting to another political party,” they said.

They also contended that the trial court erred in law and misdirected itself when it relied on Sections 68 and 109 of the Constitution to hold that the appellants, having defected from the PDP to the APC, offended the provisions of the Constitution and must vacate their offices as governor and deputy governor respectively.

“There is no specific mention of governor and deputy governor in the provisions of sections 68 and 109 respectively of the 1999 Constitution (as amended)

“By relying on sections 68 and 109 of the Constitution the trial court assumed the role of the legislator and arrogated to itself the powers of amendment of the Constitution

“There is no provision in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which state that governor or deputy governor will vacate his office if he defects from his political party to another political party,” they said.

The appellants added that the trial court erred in law and overruled the decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria when it held that the ownership of votes cast during the governorship election of 2019 belongs to the first respondent (the PDP) and not the appellants.

“The trial court relied on Amaechi v. INEC and Faleke v. INEC when same are no longer the law on the ownership of votes cast in an election,” they said.