Dave Umahi, the governor of Ebonyi State, and his deputy, Dr. Kelechi Igwe, have both been kicked out of office.
A Federal High Court in Abuja today fired the duo.
The governor and his deputy were fired by the court for illegally defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Their decamp was deemed illegal, unconstitutional, null, and invalid by the court, and they were ordered to quit their positions immediately.
In a ruling issued on Tuesday, Justice Inyang Ekwo ordered Umahi and his deputy to cease serving as Governor and Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State.
The court ruled that the votes that elected them belonged to the PDP and that they could not keep those votes after abandoning the party that nominated them.
According to the judge, the ballots counted for the PDP in the March 9, 2019 governorship election are also not transferable to the APC, which lost the election.
“There is no constitutional provision that made the ballot transferrable from one party to the other,” the court said.
