Impeachment: Edo Deputy Governor Shuaibu urges probe panel to suspend sitting

The Deputy Governor of Edo,
State, Philip Shaibu, on Wednesday, prayed the seven-member investigative panel on his planned impeachment to halt its sitting in obedience to an interlocutory injunction of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

At its maiden sitting on Wednesday in Benin City, the state capital, Mr Shaibu, through his lawyer, Oladoyin Awoyale, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and professor, said the panel’s sitting would foist a fait accompli (helplessness) on the court.

He argued that there was a subsisting order of interlocutory injunction granted by the Federal High Court in Abuja. He said the court had adjourned further hearing until April 8.

Mr Awoyale argued that with the court’s order, all parties must obey the ruling.

However, counsel for the House of Assembly and Deputy Clerk, Legal Department, Joe Oaifi, argued that the panel’s sitting was supported by section 188 (10) of the constitution which foreclosed any court from preventing the House of Assembly and the panel from discharging its constitutional responsibilities.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Chief Judge of the state, Daniel Okungbowa, constituted a panel headed by a retired judge, S. A. Omonuwa.

The panel has the mandate to investigate the allegation of misconduct levelled against the deputy governor by the Edo State House of Assembly.(NAN)

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