For defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), all 16 defecting lawmakers in Ebonyi State House of Assembly have been sacked by the order of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
The court declared the defection of the lawmakers illegal because the votes that brought them to the House of Assembly belongs to PDP and not APC.
The court declared their defection unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void and ordered them to immediately vacate their offices.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a separate judgment in a suit by the PDP on Tuesday, ordered the Speaker of the House of Assembly and his co-defectors to immediately stop parading themselves as members of Ebonyi State House of Assembly.
He held that the votes that brought them to office belonged to the PDP and that the legislators cannot hold on to the votes having elected to defect from the party that nominated them.
Justice Ekwo also held that the votes cast for PDP in the 2019 election are not transferrable to the APC that failed in the election.
It restrained the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognizing or according any recognition to them as elected members of the House of Assembly.
Justice Ekwo ordered that all monies collected from the top period of their defection to the judgment date must be recovered from them.
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