Court Dismiss Cross River Lawmakers For Joining APC

Twenty members of the Cross River State House of Assembly have been dismissed for defecting to the All Progressive Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) (APC).

In a judgement issued on Monday, Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja fired the legislators.

The presiding court concluded that the MPs should relinquish their seats because they had abandoned the political party that had brought them to prominence.

The Assembly Speaker and other members who defected from the PDP to the APC, on the other hand, were ordered by Justice Taiwo to resign their seats immediately.

He said that all wages and allowances provided to parliamentarians from the time they defected till now should be forfeited to the government.

The ruling came after the PDP filed a lawsuit, FHC/ABJ/CS/975/2021, after the defection of legislators and Governor Ben Ayade in 2020.

Remember that the Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Hon. Francis Nwifuru, was also fired by a Federal High Court in Abuja.

While delivering his judgment, Justice Inyang Ekwo ordered the Speaker and other members who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party in 2020 after the defection of state Governor David Umahi to the All Progressives Congress to abandon their seats.

All MPs who were elected on the PDP platform and afterwards switched to the APC should relinquish their seats, according to Ekwo.