JUST IN: Court sacks Ebonyi senator — orders him to refund salaries, allowances within 14 days

A Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state has declared the seat of the senator representing Ebonyi South Senatorial zone in the National Assembly, Sonni Ogbuoji vacant for defecting from the party he was elected.

The court ordered him to vacate the seat immediately and ordered Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Ogbuoji immediately and conduct a fresh election immediately to fill the seat.

The court also ordered the lawmaker to refund all monies be it salaries, allowances or any order form of payment he may have received as benefits from the position of Senator from the date of his defection to the coffers of government.

Ogbuoji was elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) but defected to All Progressives Congress(APC), a party he contested this year’s governorship election.

The Court in a 71 pages judgment delivered by Justice Akintola Aluko held that Ogbuoji by defecting from the party under whose platform he was elected to another party flouted section 68(1)g of the 1999 constitution.

The said section 68(1)g says that “a member of Senate or House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House if being a person whose election to the house was sponsored by another political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that house was elected. Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored”

In other words, any lawmaker who defects to another political party when the party under whose platform he was elected was not undergoing any form of crisis or was not part of a merger with two or more political parties shall vacate his seat.

The judgment was in respect of suit number FHC/AI/CS/44/2018 filed by Evo Ogbonnaya Anegu, Oti Ama Ude, Uche Richard Ajali, Una Sunday Okoro
and Simon Ajali Ogbadu for themselves and on behalf of the teaming members of the PDP in Ebonyi South Senatorial District.

They had sued Ogbuoji and the Independent National Electoral Commission (2nd Defendant) asking the court to declare the senator’s seat vacant for defecting to the APC when there was no crisis or division in the PDP.

They also prayed the court to order the 1st defendant (Ogbuoji) to refund all monies may have been paid to him since January 2018 when he defected from The PDP to the APC.

The plaintiffs in their postulations through their counsel, Barr Roy Umahi expressed worry that Ogbuoji’s conduct if not condemned and upturned would encourage political prostitution and legislative rascality and destroy the reasons for the laws made to regulate defections of National Assembly members by the constitution.

But Ogbuoji in his defence claimed that he resigned his membership of the PDP and defected to the APC on January 27, 2017 and not January 2018 as claimed by the Applicants.

He noted that the crisis in the party was finally resolved in July 2017 by the Supreme Court but that before then he had resigned his membership of the party via a letter of resignation he submitted to the PDP Secretary of his Ebunwana Ward, one Ukpo Regina Agwu in January 27, 2017.

But the Plaintiffs countered by providing evidence that the said Regina Ukpo was not the Secretary of the Ward at the time the said letter was allegedly given to her as she had already been by expelled by the party on 23 January 2017..

They also argued with incontrovertible evidence that Ogbuoji who claimed to have defected from the PDP to APC in January 2017 took active participation in the non elective and elective congresses of the PDP which held on August and December 2017 as a delegate.

The Court, in its findings said there were discrepancies in the evidences provided by Ogbuoji which rendered them unreliable and doubtful.

For example, the court noted that some of the documentary exhibits presented by the defence like signatures of Ukpo Regina Agwu, the erstwhile Ebunwana Ward Secretary, were found to be materially different in the various documents provided to the court .

“There is no basis to attach any probative or evidential value to the said exhibits

What that means is that the defendant’s claim of resignation ( on January 2017) is shrouded in inconsistency, contradiction and suspicion” , the judge said.

The Court agreed with the Plaintiff’s claims that most of the documents provided by the 1st Defendant were concocted for the purpose of the suit only.

The Court in conclusion said that it has been tremendously an sufficiently established by credible evidence that Ogbuoji defected to the APC in January 2018 and not January 2017 as he claimed in his defence.

It also said that at the time of his defection there was no division or faction in the PDP to warrant such defection as permitted by section 68 (1)g of the constitution.

“By the evidence before me, I find that the 1st defendant is guilty of unholy political flirtation and coquetry which the makers and drafters of the constitution resolved to outlaw by the enactment of section 68(1)g of the constitution”, Justice Aluko declared.

The Judge further held that having defected to another party when there was no crisis in his original party, Mr Ogbuoji ought to have vacated his seat.

Having failed to vacate his seat in the senate following his unconstitutional defection in a manner that suggests that he ate his cake and still wanted to have it, he is liable to be forced out and refund to the National Assembly all monies in form of salaries, allowances, or whatsoever paid to him by virtue of his unconstitutional holding on to the position as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria beginning from the date of his unconstitutional defection till date”.

“Consequently I hold that the case of the plaintiffs has merit and same hereby succeeds”, Justice Akintayo stated

The Judge further ordered INEC to withdraw Ogbuoji’s Certificate of Return and immediately conduct a fresh election to fill the vacant seat created by his unconstitutional defection.

The Court also awarded the sum of N500, 000 in favour of the plaintiff and against the 1st defendant.

Ogbuoji, it will be recalled contested the 2019 governorship election in Ebonyi state against the incumbent Governor, David Umahi.

He lost the election to the governor who was on Tuesday issued Certificate of Return and is expected to be sworn in on May 29 for a second term in office.