Rivers crisis: Court restrains embattled Speaker from parading as speaker

The Court presided over by Justice M.W. Danagogo ordered the factional Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Edison Ehie, to preside over activities of the legislative arm of the state, pending the determination of a motion before it.

In the process which was prepared by D.I Iboroma, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and others, Ehie asked the court to order Amaewhule and others to stop accessing the State Assembly complex until the burnt hallowed chamber is fully renovated by the government.

Ehie also wants the court to order that he lawfully takes over the speakership of the State Assembly until the matter before it is dispensed.

The court in an Interim Order granted the requests of the applicant, urging Amaewhule and others to stop using the Assembly premises following the directive of Governor Siminalayi Fubara as the facility was under renovation.  

The order threatened that the 2nd Claimant, Ehie would pay the sum of fifty million naira as damages if the application before the court turns out to be frivolous, and ordered him to serve the Interim Order, the Motion on Notice already filed, the Originating Process and other processes in the suit on the defendants on or before the 13th day of December, 2023.

The court granted leave to the Claimants to serve all the processes by substituted means by publication in two National Newspapers or by posting at a conspicuous part of the last known address of the defendants and adjourned till 21st December, 2023 for motion on notice.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State has faulted the experte order of a Rivers State High Court presided over by Justice M.W. Danagogo against twenty-seven members of the State House of Assembly who defected to the APC.

The Chairman of the APC Caretaker Committee, Tony Okocha in a media briefing in Port Harcourt described the orders of the court as abuse of court processes.

Okocha said the hasty orders by Justice Danagogo was targeted at granting Governor Siminalayi Fubara the opportunity to present the eight hundred billion naira budget to four House of Assembly members, noting that such act is in defiance of the warning of the National Judicial Commission.

The Rivers State Representative at the Niger Delta Development Commission Management Board warned that as a party, they will not seat and watch anyone harass, intimidate or humiliate their members who hold the majority number in the State House of Assembly.

Okocha advised Governor Fubara to refrain from allowing himself act in a way that is capable to escalating the political tension caused by his party, the Peoples Democratic Party.