Ben Dunno, Warri
The former Minister of Information, Prof. Sam Oyovbaire, has applauded the Abuja High Court over the judgement sacking the Eboyi state Governor, Dave Umahi and his deputy, describing it as courageous and excellent pronouncements intended to correct a major anomaly in the political space.
He however dismissed the reaction of Governor Umahi to petition the presiding judge before the CJN and NJC over the judgement as an unwarranted threat, stating that the best option for him would have been to appeal the judgement even as far as the supreme court.
Making his reaction over the judgement in an interview the Daily Sun in Warri Tuesday Prof Oyovbaire, who is a Board of Trustee Member (,BOT) of the People Democratic Party (PDP), noted that the Judge based his decision on the fact that it was PDP that was on the ballot boxes when the election was conducted and not an individual and such it was the party that was voted into office.
“Consequently it would be totally wrong for an individual to wake up one day and decided to give the mandate of a political party that won the election to another party that did not win based on individusl selfish interest”.
While maintaining that such illegality had continued to play out in our political space for quite someone now, Prof. Oyovbaire, noted that with this judgement the judiciary will now more of interpretations to do on the issue of defection among political office holders especially the governors.
He stated that what had continued to baffled him was how the elites had to base all their arguments on illegality as against morality, adding that the absence of mortality in our political life was the basis for all these misgivings in out political space.
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