Twenty members of the Cross River State House of Assembly were on Monday sacked by the Federal High Court in Abuja, for defecting from the People’s Democratic Party to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Giving the judgment, Justice Taiwo Taiwo held that the lawmakers, having abandoned the political party that sponsored them to power, should vacate their seats.
Justice Taiwo gave the judgment in a suit filed by the PDP and marked FHC/ABJ/CS/975/2021.
He ruled that the argument by the legislators that their defection to the APC was caused by rancor in the PDP was a ploy to mislead the court.
The Monday judgment comes about two weeks after a similar court decision sacked David Umahi, the governor of Ebonyi State, and his Deputy, for decamping from the PDP to APC also. had two weeks ago asked the Federal High Court for an order staying the execution of its judgment that ordered their removal from office as governor and deputy governor of the state respectively.
The March 8, 2022 judgment had directed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to immediately receive from PDP the names of its candidates to replace them.
The governor and his deputy have since appealed the judgment.
