The Chief Judge of Rivers State, Simeon Chibuzor-Amadi, has declined a request from the Rivers State House of Assembly to set up a seven-member panel to investigate allegations of gross misconduct against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngọzi Odu.
In a letter dated 20 January and addressed to the Speaker of the House, Martin Amaewhule, Mr Chibuzor-Amadi cited two interim injunctions by a state high court as reason for his decision.
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PREMIUM TIMES reported that the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt issued two interim injunctions restraining the state assembly and the chief judge from going ahead with its impeachment proceedings against Mr Fubara and Mrs Odu, a professor.
The governor and his deputy had filed two separate suits on the matter upon which the court issued two separate injunctions against the assembly and the chief judge.
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The court orders came shortly after the lawmakers requested the chief judge to set up a seven-member panel to probe allegations of gross misconduct against Mr Fubara and his deputy.
‘My hand is fettered’
Mr Chibuzor-Amadi said in the letter that the existence of the two court injunctions and the pending appeal by the Speaker had “legally disabled” him.
The chief judge further said that the speaker’ appeal against the court orders at the Court of Appeal had added another layer to the ongoing legal proceedings surrounding the allegations.
“In view of the foregoing, my hand is fettered, as there are subsisting interim orders of injunction and appeal against the said orders.
“I am therefore legally disabled at this point from exercising my duties under Section 188(5) of the Constitution in the instant,” he said.
He emphasised that constitutionalism and the rule of law require all authorities to obey subsisting court orders, irrespective of their perception of the orders’ validity.
Mr Chibuzor-Amadi referenced a similar case in 2007 in which the chief judge of Kwara State was “roundly condemned in strong language” for ignoring a restraining court order when setting up an investigative panel, a decision later voided by the Court of Appeal.
“By the doctrine of ‘lis pendens,’ parties and the court have to await the outcome of the appeal,” he said.
The chief judge appealed to the lawmakers to recognise the legal constraints surrounding the matter.
He also urged the state assembly to be “magnanimous enough to appreciate the legal position of the matter.”
Background
On 8 January, Rivers State House of Assembly, began impeachment proceedings against Governor Fubara and his Deputy, Mrs Odu, over alleged gross misconduct.
The latest was the third attempt by the lawmakers to impeach the Rivers governor since he was elected into office in 2023.
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The impeachment move came shortly after the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, accused the governor of reneging on the terms of a peace deal brokered by President Bola Tinubu in June last year.
On 15 January, the assembly failed to reconvene despite earlier shifting its sitting until the day. This fuelled speculations the lawmakers might drop the impeachment move.
However, on 16 January, the lawmakers announced that the impeachment process would go on as earlier planned.
The assembly subsequently requested the chief judge to set up a panel to investigate the allegations of gross misconduct against the governor and his deputy.
But hours later, the Rivers high court issued the order which restrained the assembly and the chief judge from proceeding with the impeachment process against Rivers governor and his deputy.
