Robert Clark details illegality of court ruling in Umahi’s case

The ruling by the Federal High Court in Abuja, voiding the governorship status of Ebonyi’s Dave Umahi and his deputy, Kelechi Igwe for defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), continues to elicit reactions from stakeholders.

A renowned legal luminary, Robert Clark, on Wednesday, said that in his own opinion the votes belonged to the candidate and not the party, which as a legal entity could not stand for an election, without the candidate.

He also criticized the court for citing the case between former Rivers State Governors, Celestine Omehia and Rotimi Amaechi.

In February 2014, the Supreme Court dismissed a suit filed by Celestine Omehia, a former governor of Rivers State, challenging the election of his successor, Rotimi Amaechi.

The court quashed the decision of an appeal court which gave Mr. Omehia a temporary win that suggested he may oust Mr. Amaechi after seven years in office.

The long-drawn case dated back to 2010.

Mr. Omehia was removed from office in October 2007 after holding office for five months. The Supreme Court at the time ruled that he had usurped Mr. Amaechi’s ticket for the election, and accordingly handed Mr. Amaechi the top job.

During the interview on AriseTV monitored by Ripples Nigeria, Clark clarified that every court had always adhered to the Electoral law with the Amaechi’s case being a one-off which was jettisoned and never cited by any court in similar cases.

“Up to 2016, every court was adhering to the Electoral law but I told them I won’t adhere to the Ameachi case which all courts jettisoned.

READ ALSO: We are yet to receive court’s judgment on Umahi – INEC

“But if it goes to the Supreme Court, it will rule that it is the person that is sponsored by the party that is being voted for; the candidate owns the vote so it is wrong to say the totality of all votes are accrued to the political party.

“We need independent candidates in our law but the constitution and electoral act doesn’t permit it. It would bring sanity to Nigeria,” Clark explained.

In the aftermath of the ruling on Tuesday, Umahi accused the Presiding Justice Inyang Ekwo of sabotage and witchhunt against his administration.

“Nobody can remove me as the govenor of the state as we know where the judgement came from.

“Justice Ekwo has more than 10 cases against the state government and we will see where this leads him,” he said.

Justice Ekwo had held that the votes that brought Umahi and the two others to office belonged to the PDP and therefore, they cannot hold on to the votes having elected to jettison the party that nominated them.

“Having defected to the APC, the defendants not only jettisoned the PDP, the party which brought them to power, but also the votes that belonged to it,” Justice Ekwo said in his ruling.

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