INEC Speaks on Umahi’s Removal as Ebonyi Governor, Reveals Next Move

From Ogundele Olanrewaju

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has finally issued a statement on the recent sacking of Dave Umahi as Governor of Ebonyi state and his deputy, Chief Kelechi Igwe.

The commission revealed that it was yet to be served the certified True Copy of the Federal High Court that sacked Umahi and Igwe.

Mr Festus Okoye, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee disclosed this in an interview with Journalists in Abuja.

“The Commission has not been served with a copy of the said judgment.The Commission will meet and take a decision when it is served with a Certified True Copy of the judgment,” Okoye said.

POLITICS NIGERIA recalls that a Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Inyang Ekwo, on Tuesday, ordered Gov. Umahi to vacate office after his defection from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Justice Ekwo, in the judgment, also ordered Dr Kelechi Igwe to stop parading himself as the deputy governor of the state.

He declared that having defected from the PDP, under which platform they came into power, the duo were deemed to have resigned from the office and, hence, no longer entitled to be called governor and deputy governor.

The judge said it was constitutionally wrong for a candidate elected into an office on a platform of a political party to defect to another political while still in office.