The Federal High Court in Abuja has postponed its judgement on a suit seeking to have the governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade, sacked from office.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had sued Mr Ayade and 20 state legislators over their defection from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in May 2021.
Last Monday, March 21, the judge, Taiwo Taiwo, sacked the Cross River State House of Assembly Speaker and 17 of his colleagues alongside two members of the House of Representatives for defecting to the APC, when “there (were) no justifiable reasons” for their action.
The judgement on Mr Ayade’s defection was slated for Friday, March 25, triggering uncertainties as to the fate of the governor, after another federal judge, Inyang Ekwo, about two weeks ago, sacked the Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi for ditching the PDP for the APC.
PREMIUM TIMES’ check on Mr Taiwo’s cause list, the list of the day’s scheduled cases, showed that the judgement has been shifted to April 6.
“We were only informed of the postponement of judgement on Governor Ayade’s defection suit on Thursday afternoon,” a lawyer to one of the parties in the suit said on Friday.
The lawyer, who asked not to be named because he was not given the authority, to talk to the press about the matter added, “I had called the court registry to find out about the time that the judge would be delivering judgement, only to be told that it had been shifted to April 6,” the lawyer told this reporter on Friday morning.”
During Monday’s proceedings, lawyers and litigants waited for about two hours before Mr Taiwo resumed sitting for the day at about 2:00 p.m.
The judge apologised for not delivering the lawmakers’ judgement at noon on Monday as he had promised.
