The Federal High Court in Abuja has sacked the Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Eteng Williams, and 19 other members for defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The presiding judge, Justice 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.
This judgement is coming two weeks after Justice 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.
Taiwo said, “A day must surely come when elected officials, must ask the people who voted for them before defecting to other political parties.”
He said 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 filed with loopholes. The papers are manifestly defective,” the judge said.
The defendants in the suit were the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the APC and clerk of the State House of Assembly.
