At least 17 Senior Advocates of Nigeria has been mobilised by the Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, to appeal the judgement of the Federal High court sitting in Abuja that earlier sacked him from office for defecting from the opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Justice Inyang Ekwo gave the judgement on Tuesday.
The governor on Wednesday disclosed that he had mobilised the services of over 17 senior lawyers to appeal his case.
He also apologised to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA, and reversed the alleged uncomplimentary statement made against Justice Ekwo.
He apologised while addressing hundreds of members of the ruling APC in his state at a solidarity rally at the Udensi roundabout.
Umahi explained that he has no regrets defecting to the APC and threatened to engage in battle with the opposition PDP in the state, especially for trying to distract his administration.
“I’m still the Governor of Ebonyi State and I’m still working. I said the lawyers of PDP are the ones doing forum shopping and I’m going to write against the lawyers to NBA to discipline them because the judge was misled. The blame was not on the judge. The blame is on the PDP lawyers who misled the judge.
“And I’m using the opportunity to let Nigerians know that nobody castigated the judge and we will not and because the matter was not before any judge.
“Today, we have appealed the judgement. We have done three things; we have done the appeal at Enugu, and when I say that, we have two judgements, I say that the judgement in Ebonyi state, which has equal powers with that of Abuja. We said we will obey the judgement in Ebonyi State. We will appeal the judgement of Abuja. We didn’t say we will disobey otherwise we would have not appealed.
“We are before the Appeal of Enugu state and that of Abuja. We have also filed a stay of execution. So, we are still the Governor and Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State,” he stated.
The NMA had asked Umahi to apologise and retract his statement against the person and judgment of Justice Ekwo, whom he described as a “hatchet man”.
Umahi had also described the judgement as “jungle justice”.
NBA President, Olumide Akpata, in a statement, had reacted, saying Umahi went too far.
