High Court Tackles Ministry Of Finance In Abakaliki( SEE DETAILS)

A federal high court in Abakaliki has instructed the ministry of Finance to withhold the allocations and other entitlements of the 13 Local Government Councils of Ebonyi State until the state government obeys the court judgement.

Some aggrieved individuals, namely; Otu Collins Eleri, Nelson Eze, Akaa Ikechikwu, Micheal Ali, and Isu Amaechi, had in a suit No: FHC/AI/CS/151, dragged the Ebonyi State government, the State Assembly, INEC and the Attorney-General of the State to the Federal High Court, Abakaliki, for not giving all the aspirants a level playing ground during the LG election.

The court, presided over by Justice Fatun Riman on August 25, 2022, in its ruling, said it was undemocratic and unlawful to conduct an election in the local government areas without availing the plaintiffs of the extant laws meant to regulate the exercise, and consequently nullified the election.

The Presiding Judge, Justice Fatun Riman, on Friday said ,”As law-abiding individuals, my clients came back to court because, in that earlier judgement, the court declared the election held by the EBSIEC as unconstitutional, null, void and of no use. The court also declared that the tenure of the chairmen of local governments who have now been forced out of office will expire in August 2023.

“We came back to this court to give effect to that earlier judgement, and that election that was pronounced unconstitutional.

In the judgement today, the court has agreed that the Ebonyi State High Court has no powers to override or set aside the judgement of the Federal High Court because it is not an Appeal Court.

“Those people who are parading themselves as chairmen are not there legally. They were appointed by whoever that appointed them. The CBN, the Attorney General of the Federation, the Federal Ministry of Finance are all defendants in this suits.”