On Wednesday, March 9th, Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, retracted an alleged unflattering comment said about Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja and apologized to the Nigeria Barr Association (NBA).
According to the report, Umahi apologized while speaking to over two thousand members of the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ebonyi State during a solidarity rally held at the Udensi roundabout to reaffirm their support and devotion to the governor.
He claimed that he has enlisted the help of over seventeen Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to appeal the decision of the Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Inyang Ekwo, in which he was dismissed for defecting from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Umahi claimed he had no remorse over defecting to the ruling APC and warned to fight the opposition PDP in Ebonyi State, particularly for attempting to derail his administration.
“I am still the Governor of Ebonyi State, and I am still doing my job. I stated that the PDP attorneys were forum shopping, and I intend to write to the NBA to have them disciplined since the judge was misinformed. The judge was not at fault. The PDP attorneys are to fault for misleading the judge”.
“I am making use of this occasion to assure Nigerians that no one has chastised the judge, and we will not since the case was not before a judge.”
“We have filed an appeal against the decision today. We have done three things; we have filed an appeal in Enugu, and when I say we have got two judgments, I am referring to the one in Ebonyi State, which has the same authority as the one in Abuja. We stated that we would follow the ruling in Ebonyi State. The Abuja ruling will be appealed. We didn’t say we would defy, or we wouldn’t have filed an appeal”.
“We are in front of the Enugu State Appeal and the Abuja Appeal.” We have also filed a motion for a stay of execution. As a result, we remain the Governor and Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State,” he remarked.
