Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi has approached the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court to withdraw a stay of execution motion he filed due to a mistake in the application.

Chukwuma Ma-Chukwu Ume, a counsel to Mr Umahi and his deputy, Kelechi Igwe, told Justice Inyang Ekwo at the mention of the suit on Wednesday.

When the case was called, Mr Ume informed the court that he had withdrawn the earlier motion to replace it with a new one.

He said the development was because a mistake occurred in the earlier stay of execution motion, especially in the spelling of Mr Umahi’s name.

The senior lawyer said that though the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) served them with their counter affidavit yesterday (Tuesday), they sought to replace their motion with another due to the spelling error.

Counsel to the PDP, James Onoja, also informed the court of their intention to respond to the new motion on stay of execution filed by Messrs Umahi and Igwe.

Other parties, in addition, said they were yet to respond to the applicants’ motion.

Mr Ekwo adjourned the matter until March 21 to enable the respondents to file a counter to the application for stay.

Mr Ekwo had, on March 8, in a judgment, ordered Messrs Umahi, Igwe, and 16 lawmakers to vacate their office and seats, following their defection from the PDP to All Progressives Congress (APC).

On March 10, Mr Umahi and others had sought an order of the court, staying the execution of its judgment directing them to vacate their offices over their defection to another political party.

(NAN)