Court sacks all local council chairpersons, councillors in Ebonyi

A Federal High Court in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, has nullified the local government and councilorship elections in the state.

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The elections, conducted in July 2024, brought 13 local government chairpersons and 171 councillors into power in the South-eastern state.

The candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) won all 13 chairmanship seats and 171 ward councillors during the elections.

But two indigenes of the state, Samuel Udeogu and Amaechi Isu, filed a suit against the poll. They were listed as first and second plaintiffs in the suit respectively.

The Independent National Electoral Commission and the Ebonyi State Independent Electoral Commission (EBSIEC) were listed in the suit as defendants.

Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State, a member of the APC, and the Ebonyi State Government were also listed as defendants.

Messrs Udeogu and Isu through their lawyers, Hamilton Ogbodo and Mudi Erhenede, had asked the court to, among others, nullify the council elections for being conducted in violation of the Electoral Law 2022.

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Judgement

Delivering judgement on Tuesday, the judge, Hillary Oshomah, ruled that the July 2024 elections did not follow the guidelines of the Electoral Act 2022.

Justice Oshomah, therefore, voided the local government and councilorship elections in the state.

The court also ordered the EBSIEC and the Ebonyi State Government not to conduct further local government and councilorship elections in the state except in line with the provisions of the constitution and the electoral act.

Lawyers hail ruling

Speaking to reporters shortly after the court proceeding, Mr Ogbodo, counsel to the 1st plaintiff, Mr Udeogu, lauded the judgement.

The lawyer said the elections remained void until the ruling is set aside by another court of competent jurisdiction.

“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,” he said.

He contended that those who do not want to obey the law often twist it the way they want to serve their own goals.

Also speaking, Mr Erhenede, counsel to the 2nd Plaintiff, Mr Isu, recalled that a federal high court in Abakaliki presided by the then Justice Fatun Rilman, now late, had nullified the 2022 local government and councilorship elections, but the state failed to obey the order.

The legal practitioner said the state government, rather than obey the court order, went ahead and swore in individuals as elected council chairpersons and councillors across the 13 local government and 171 wards in the state.

He further recalled that although the Ebonyi State Government and EBSIEC – 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively – appealed Justice Rilman’s ruling, they lost the appeal.

“This is a question of people who don’t want to believe in the rule of law and obey the rule of law,” he said.

He urged the court to make the certified true copies of the judgment available as soon as possible.

READ ALSO: Ebonyi politician orders arrest of journalist, family begs for his release

Background

The legal battle draws on the precedent set in August 2022 when Justice Fatun Riman of the same court nullified the local council elections of that year.

The court, at the time, held that the elections failed to comply with the provisions of the 2022 Electoral Law.

Dave Umahi, now Nigeria’s minister of works, was the governor of the South-eastern state at the time.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, the Ebonyi State Government and the then sacked chairpersons of the 13 local government councils appealed the ruling at the Court of Appeal Enugu Division.

But the Court of Appeal, in May 2025, affirmed the judgement of the Federal High Court Abakaliki which nullified the 2022 local elections in Ebonyi State.