By Jeff Agbodo
ABAKALIKI – A Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital has nullified the election of serving local government and councilorship elections conducted in 2024 in the state.
The presiding Judge, Justice H.I.O. Oshomah, held that the July 2024 local government and councilorship elections in the state did not conform with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
The court voided and cancelled the local government and councilorship elections and asked the Ebonyi State Independent Electoral Commission (EBSIEC) and the state government, who are the 2nd and 3rd respondents, not to conduct further local government and councilorship elections in the state except in line with the provisions of the Constitution.
The court granted most of the reliefs sought by counsel to the 1st plaintiff, Hamilton Ogbodo, and 2nd plaintiff, Chief Mudi Erhenede, granted consequential orders on the matter.
Hamilton Ogbodo, counsel to 1st plaintiff, Samuel Udeogu, hailed the judgement.
“So, in effect, the local government election that was conducted in July 2024 in Ebonyi State is no more; it has been cancelled by this Federal High Court today.
“If the 2nd and 3rd defendants want to do what the law says they should do, they should revert to status quo ante bellum and then obey the court order, but we are waiting for them because the time within which they can appeal this judgement is still running and when it expires, we will know what to do.
“We expect them to obey the court order. The local government chairmen have been sacked by the order of the court. The court has done exactly what the law says it should do because these things are in black and white.
“It is when you don’t want to obey the law, you know, read it the way you want so that it can serve your own goals,” he said.
On his part, Mudi Erhenede, counsel to Isu Amaechi, who is 2nd plaintiff in the matter, said the Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki, presided over by late Justice Fatun Riman, had nullified the 2022 local government and councilorship elections, which the state government did not obey but went ahead and swore in people as elected council chairmen and councillors across the 13 local governments and 171 wards in the state.
He noted that the 2nd and 3rd defendants filed an appeal against the Justice Fatun Riman judgement, which they lost following the upholding of the Justice Fatun Riman Federal High Court judgement.
“This is a question of people who don’t want to believe in rule of law and obey the rule of law.
“The Federal High Court nullified the local government election conducted in 2022 and the state, in defiance of that judgement, proceeded to swear in some persons as local government chairmen,” he said.
He hailed the Justice Oshomah court ruling of Tuesday on the 2024 local government and councilorship elections in the state and urged the court to make available the judgement within the possible time.
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