Sen. Sonni Ogbuoji, Ebonyi South senatorial district, has challenged the judgement of a Federal High court declaring his seat vacant.
In an appeal filed before the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu, the senator is asking the court to vacate and annul the judgement.
Recall that a federal high court sitting in Abakaliki and presided over by Justice Akintoye Aluko had on April 16 declared Ogbuoji’s seat vacant on the ground that he decamped from the party under which he was elected when there was no crisis in the party.
The senator who was the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ebonyi in the March 9 governorship election, was elected into the Upper Chamber in 2015 under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Ogbuoji, in the appeal filed by his counsel, Mr. Michael Odo, dated April 18, contended that the trial court deliberately over-looked evidences tendered that showed he resigned from the PDP on Jan. 27, 2017.
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He further contended that the trial judge equally ignored evidences that proved that he registered with the APC on Feb. 2, 2017.
Ogbuoji, among others, also submitted that he resigned from the PDP at a time when it was engulfed in crisis which to the emergence of two factions, one led by Sen. Ahmed Makarfi and the other led by Sen. Ali-Modu Sherif.
Describing the judgement as a miscarriage of justice, the senator said the trial court erred in resolving the meaning and correct interpretation of Section 68 (1)g, of the 1999 Constitution on defection and forfeiture of the seat of a defected legislator and therefore prayed the appellate court to set aside the decision of the lower court and overrule the declaration of his seat vacant.
He further prayed the court to hold the declaration of his seat vacant as illegal, unconstitutional, at variance with the law and therefore a nullity.
No date had been fixed for the commencement of hearing of the appeal.
