BREAKING: Court sacks Speaker, 19 other Cross River Assembly members for defecting to APC

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Monday, sacked the Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Eteng Williams, and 19 members of State House of Assembly that defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC.

The court, in a judgement that was delivered by Justice Taiwo Taiwo, held that the lawmakers, having abandoned the political party that sponsored them to power, ought to vacate their seats.

The judgement followed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/975/2021, which was filed by the PDP.

The judge, Taiwo Taiwo, while delivering judgement on a suit instituted by the PDP to challenge the lawmakers’ defection, dismissed all the preliminary objections raised by the sacked lawmakers.

“A day must surely come when elected officials, must ask the people who voted for them before defecting to other political parties,” Mr Taiwo said.

He noted that “lawmakers wined and dined under the umbrella of the PDP,” but ditched the party even when there was no justification for their action.

“The defendants’ court documents were contrived and filled with loopholes. The papers are manifestly defective,” the judge said while granting all the reliefs sought by the PDP.

The defendants in the suit were the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the APC and the clerk of the State House of Assembly.

The judgement comes two weeks after Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja sacked Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, his deputy, Kelechi Igwe, along with 15 lawmakers in the state House of Assembly.

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