Umahi asks court to stay execution of judgment removing him from office

David Umahi, governor of Ebonyi, and his deputy, Eric Igwe, have filed an application before an Abuja federal high court, seeking to stay execution of the judgment that sacked them from office.

Inyang Ekwo, the presiding judge, had on Tuesday sacked the governor and his deputy from their respective offices over their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The judge held that the 393,042 votes polled by Umahi in the March 2019 governorship election belonged to the PDP and cannot be legally transferred to the APC.

Consequently, Ekwo ordered the PDP to present another candidate or in the alternative, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should conduct a fresh poll within 90 days.

In a motion on notice filed through their team of lawyers led by Chukwuma-Ma-Chukwu Ume, the Umahi and Igwe prayed the court to also suspend the alternative order that directed INEC to conduct a fresh governorship election in the state.

They also prayed to court to stay execution of the order that mandated INEC to receive names of PDP candidates to replace them, as well as the order that restrained the electoral body from further recognising them as the governor and deputy governor of Ebonyi, respectively.

They applied for an order to restrain the PDP from submitting any names to the INEC and if already submitted and accepted, to issue an order of injunction, restraining INEC from issuing certificate of return or “putting same into effect, pending the conclusion of the appeal”.

Umahi and Igwe are also seeking an order restraining INEC from conducting elections into their offices and or declaring the names of any candidate presented by the PDP as the governor and deputy governor of Ebonyi state.

Their application, premised on order 26 rules 1 and 2(1) and order 32 rules 1 and 4(1) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019, was predicated on eight grounds.

Umahi and his deputy informed the court that being satisfied with the judgment, they have filed an appeal to challenge it.

They claimed that the notice of appeal had been properly served on all parties and that they had already started the process of compiling and transmitting the appeal’s data.

They claimed that allowing the court’s ruling to be carried out before the outcome of the ongoing appeal would compromise their rights.

Meanwhile, the 16 lawmakers of the Ebonyi state house of assembly that were also sacked by the court on the grounds of defection, have also filed a motion to stay the execution of the judgment against them, pending the hearing and determination of their appeal.