By Deborah Onyofufeke
Justice Taiwo Taiwo, of the Federal High Court Abuja yesterday, refused to declare the Cross River state Governorship seat vacant as he did not sack Governor Ben Ayade, over his defection from the People’s Democratic Party PDP to the All-Progressive Congress APC.

Justice Taiwo Taiwo, citing a new decision of the Appellant Court, departed from his earlier judgment which sacked all members of Cross River Legislators on account of defection and held on to the decision of the Court of Appeal, delivered on April 1, to the effect that defection is not an offense under the Nigerian Constitution for now.

The Judge maintained that Governors and their Deputies can only be removed from office in line with sections 180, 188, and 189 of the Constitution which stipulated that elective officeholders can only be removed from office on account of death, resignation, or impeachment.

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Justice Taiwo said that since defection is not one of the Constitutional provisions to remove any governor, no court has the power to insert such into the Supreme Law.

He, however, agreed that defection from a winning party to a losing one is immoral, improper, and condemnable.
Justice Taiwo agreed with the submissions of Mike Ozekhome SAN that judicial precedents of a higher court must be followed by a lower one and be applied in similar matters to avoid judicial rascality and anarchy.

The court held that although parties and facts in a matter that led to the Court of Appeal’s new decision are fundamentally different from those before it except on defection alone, the application of judicial precedent must be followed and in fact, binding on lower courts.

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“In the instant case, since defection is not one of the conditions listed in the 1999 Constitution and since the court cannot enact a law or insert a new law into the Constitution, I abide by the provisions of sections 180, 188, and 189 to the effect that Governors and Deputies can only be removed from office on either death, resignation or impeachment.

The Judge agreed with the People’s Democratic Party PDP that votes belong
to political parties and that it was immoral and improper for an elected governor to move such votes to a party that lost in the same election but held that such is not an offense known to any law for now.

He, therefore, refused to grant the request of the PDP to declare the governorship seat of Ayade and his deputy vacant given the Court of Appeal’s new decision that defection was a moral burden and not an offense.

Justice Joseph Kayode Oyewole, of the Court of Appeal, Enugu division, had in a judgment delivered on April 1, 2022, held that defection is not an offense known to any law but a mere exercise of freedom of association as enshrined under section 40 of the 1999 Constitution.