David Umahi, the governor of Ebonyi State, and his deputy were fired on March 8 when the Federal High Court in Abuja upheld Justice Inyang Ekwo's decision that they had broken party loyalties by joining the All Progressives Congress (APC) (APC).
In March, Justice Ekwo declared the PDP's switch to the APC to be illegal and unconstitutional. The PDP filed lawsuits with the case numbers FHC/ABJ/CS/ 920/21 and FHC/ABJ/CS/ 1041/21 in order to have the governor and his deputy removed from office for leaving the party.
The third and fourth defendants' (Umahi and Igwe) depositions in their counter-affidavit, according to Justice Ekwo, were "evasive and insufficient" to effectively contest the plaintiff's originating process.
It was the opinion of the court that the “Immunity Clause” in section 308 of the Constitution is not absolute.
“Section 308 is a veritable constitutional shield,” the court said, adding that it was not inserted for political reasons.
However, a three-member panel of the Appeal Court on Friday held that Nigeria’s constitution does not provide any punishment for a governor or deputy governor who defected from the party on which platform he or she got elected to office.
In the lead judgment, Justice Haruna Tsanami, the appellate court held that the only option opened to a political party, aggrieved by the defection of a governor or deputy governor, is to explore the impeachment option provided in the Nigerian constitution.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja aligned with an earlier decision on the same issue given by the court’s Enugu division.