OrderPaperToday – The last is yet to be heard in Ebonyi, as regards the political drama rocking the South-East State.
This comes as the State House of Assembly on Tuesday declared the seats of three members of the parliament elected under the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) vacant.
The decision according to reports followed the resignation of the three lawmakers, Ali Okechukwu (Ishielu North); Franca Okpo (Abakaliki North), and Victor Aleke (Ebonyi West) through three letters purportedly written by them.
Speaker of the House, Francis Ogbonnaya Nwifuru read the letters on the floor of the House after which he declared the seats of the three lawmakers who were absent from the sitting vacant.
Nwifuru also ordered the Clerk to write the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) notifying the body of the development and the need to conduct fresh elections in the affected constituencies.
Out of the 24-member Assembly, fifteen of the lawmakers who are members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers attended the sitting. The three lawmakers in question, as well as six of their counterparts from the PDP, were however absent.
A Federal High Court in Abuja, in a ruling by Justice Inyang Ekwo, had on Tuesday, March 8 2022 declared the seats of fifteen legislators who defected to the APC vacant.
The Judge held that the constitution prohibits the transfer of votes from one political party to another. A judgment that also affected the Governor, David Umahi, and his deputy; Eric Igwe both of whom the lawmakers cross-carpeted with, to the APC in 2020.
An Ebonyi High Court on March 11, however, granted an interim order allowing the governor and his deputy to remain in office.
OrderPaper had in a report on Wednesday, March 9, noted that the ruling has the potential to alter the political configurations in Ebonyi State, ahead of a crucial 2023 General Election.
This paper would continue to update our readers with these developments as they unfold.
