The newly-elected council chairmen from the 13 local government areas of Ebonyi State, on Tuesday, secured an ex-parte order from the state high court to paveway for the governor, David Umahi to swear them in on 1st September, 2022.
DAILY POST gathered that the 13-newly elected council chairmen allegedly imported Ebubeagu security operatives who cordoned the state high court at the time of seeking for the ex-parte order to prevent hoodlums from invading the court to disrupt court processes.
Recall that, the Federal High Court in a judgement delivered by justice Fatun Riman had voided the local government election conducted by the Ebonyi State Independent Electoral Commission, EBSIEC, on 30th July 2022, wherein the candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, emerged winners.
One of the newly-elected chairmen, who spoke to newsmen in Abakaliki, on behalf of others, Mr. Ogodo Ali Nome, Ezza North Chairman designate, said that the state high court saw Merit on their application and granted that they should be sworn-in.
According to him: “You are aware that the Federal High Court granted an empty judgement that election should not hold on 30th July, 2022, after 25 days that election was conducted peacefully in the state.
“Based on that, we went to the state High court to get an ex-parte order to restrain them from distorting the election that had been concluded and the state high court saw the merit of our application and granted it. And we are to be sworn-in by 1st of September 2022.”
When contacted, the Commissioner of Information and State Orientation, Mr Uchenna Orji, partially confirmed that the ex-parte order was secured, “I have seen that on social media, but you need to reach the lawyers that handled it,” he stated.
Similarly, the Attorney General and Commissioner for justice in Ebonyi State, Mr. Clatus Ofoke, when contacted, denied knowledge of the ex-parte order, though promised to get details of the said ex-parte order and get back to our correspondent at the time of filing this report.