Some residents of Awka, Anambra, have reacted differently to the sack of Gov. David Umahi of Ebonyi state and his deputy Kelechi Igwe.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, ruled against the continued stay in office by Umahi and Igwe on Tuesday.
NAN reports that the same measure was given to the 17 lawmakers in the state over their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Stakeholders who spoke in separate interviews with NAN commended the judgement and said it was a development that would shape political behaviour of people in the future if upheld.
The Court had ruled that Umahi who won election on the platform of the PDP could not continue to occupy the position, having crossed to the APC.
It ruled that the votes belonged to the PDP and ordered the party to provide names of people who would take their places.
Chief Anthony Nwabuona, a Chieftain of the PDP in Anambra, described it as a welcome and healthy development in political development of the nation.
Nwabuona said the judgment of the court is in order as it would curtail the penchant of people who got elected on a particular party to defect to another without recourse to their former party.
“Most times these politicians defect to new found party without consultation with the stakeholders of the people that voted them into the elective posts they occupy,” he said.
He said the judgment is in line with the amended Electoral Act 2022 which has empowered the political party that sponsored candidates in any election to lay hold of votes cast as it belonged to the party.
According to him, it is a welcome political development, which would correct the disdainful attitude of elected officers to their parties and electorate who placed some level of confidence in them.
“It is my hope that higher courts will uphold the judgment, that will make us begin to see politicians join parties based on ideology or what they represent and not for opportunist reasons,” he said.
On his part, Chief Jude Emecheta, a chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), said the judgment would not stand.
Emecheta said there was no constitutional basis for sacking a sitting governor on the basis of defection.
He said there were a number of judgements for similar previous cases where the court ruled that only a legislator could be sacked in such circumstances.
“Though the judgement is good for an ideal situation but legally, it is a nullity,” he said.
Also speaking, Mr John Okoli-Akirika, a legal practitioner, said the judgment aligned more with morality than legality.
Okoli-Akirika corroborated Emecheta that there was no part of the constitution or Electoral Act that provided that court could oust a sitting governor for dumping the party through which he attained office to another.
He said instead, the Abuja court ruling is a pointer to a constitutional lacuna which should be addressed any time the Constitution is being amended.
That judgment of the Federal High Court Abuja in all honesty is in tandem with morality but most unfortunately it does not conform with legality.
The Social Commentator described as an embarrassing lacuna, a situation where a legislator would leave his seat upon defection but an executive could not, adding that it is breeding abuse in the political system.
“Morally, it is sound but legally it’s not, recall that in similar previous cases like that of Ebonyi and Zamfara States, the court cited that a public officer can only leave that office if he is a legislator, that section of the constitution does not apply to those in executive positions.
“So from the angle of political convenience, morality and the ideal, we can say it represents morality and integrity in politics; it is in tandem with common sense and morality but that is not the law.
“In as much as it is a welcome judgment in our political system, whatever happens at the appeal, it can only be a wake up call to an aspect of the constitution that should be amended for future purposes,” he said.
Okoli-Akirika said that if for anything, the judgment is upheld, it would entrench a political culture where sanity, respect, morality, decency, consistency would prevail.
NAN recalls that Umahi and Igwe, in November 2021 defected from PDP on whose platform they were elected into office in the 2015 and 2019 to the APC.
