Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The political camp of Gov. Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State, Thursday recorded a setback as the Court of Appeal, Abuja division, dismissed the ex parte order restraining Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule, as the Speaker of the Rivers House of Assembly.
Recall that Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, on May 10, barred Hon. Amaewhule from parading himself as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
The appeal court also dismissed the decision of the state high court which stopped 24 other members of the Assembly from accessing the complex or carrying out any such legislative assignment in the name of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
A three-man panel led by Justice Jimi Olukayode-Bada while delivering judgment in the suit, upheld the appeal filed by a factional speaker of the River State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, and 24 others against the Speaker, Victor Oko-Jumbo and two others.
The court in its determination of the issue of jurisdiction of a lower court to hear and also grant and ex parte order, held that the Federal High Court is exclusively and mandatorily the only court that can hear such matters and not a state high court, citing section 273 of the Constitution.
Fubara and his political god-father and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike, have been engrossed in a proxy war over the soul of the state.
