Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has told Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi to pack up and leave the Government House immediately following the Federal High Court ruling that disqualified him from continuing as Governor.
HURIWA asked Umahi to step down from the position of governor in compliance with the judgement of the court delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo.
The group said it was unfortunate that a man who has worked as a governor of a state for seven years will be seen casting aspersions openly against a judge of a competent court of law which is another of the three arms of government.
HURIWA sees this as the height of executive rascality for Umahi to use unprintable words to describe a judge of a federal high court and indeed one of the finest jurists in Nigeria given his prodigious intellectual output as an author of outstanding legal books, the group said in a statement signed by Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko.
“This disrespectful attitude of Umahi demonstrates the truism in what we had said previously that he, Umahi lacks the temperament to be the president of Nigeria. If by mistake or accident Mr. Umahi becomes the next President, then he will pocket the judiciary and install his puppets as judges to do his biddings,”
“His unguarded utterances and his calculated but unwarranted diatribe targeted at the judiciary of Nigeria is, to say the least disappointing.
“It is even sadder that INEC is yet to comply and enforce the judgment of the court. Why is INEC also disrespecting the law? Why is a man already stripped legally of the authority of the Governor of Ebonyi State still parading about as governor and the law enforcement agencies are aiding and abetting illegality?
“INEC being a constitutionally created body must abide by the binding judgment of the competent court of law recognized by section 6 of the 1999 constitution.
The saddest reality is, if Dave Umahi was in PDP and has lost his position to the APC, INEC would have complied with the Judgment of the federal high court because for now there is no superior ruling suspending the enforcement of that judgment.
“So INEC should immediately issue the certificate of return to the nominees sent by the PDP as directed by the court of law pending the determination of the appeal instituted by the former, Mr Dave Umahi challenging the federal high court ruling.”
Recall that a Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, sacked Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, and his Deputy, Dr Eric Kelechi Igwe, over their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressive Congress.
The judgement, delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, held that the total number of 393,042 votes Umahi secured at the March 9, 2019, Ebonyi State governorship election belonged to the PDP, hence could not be legally transferred to the APC.
The court noted that both Umahi and Igwe’s defection to the APC, not only threw out the PDP, but also the votes that belonged to the party.
