The Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has fixed a hearing for June 28 on various motions in a case seeking the removal of Speaker Martins Amaewhule and other House of Assembly members following their widely publicized defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Amaewhule and 24 other members of the house are loyalists of Nyesom Wike, the former governor and now minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
According to Vanguard, despite Amaewhule’s petition to Chief Judge John Tsoho requesting a transfer of the case to another court, the presiding judge, Justice Steven Dalyop Pam, decided to proceed with the hearing.
The BOOT Party and other plaintiffs, in suit number FHC/PHC/269/2024, are asking the court to declare Amaewhule’s and 24 other legislators’ seats vacant due to their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC.
The suit has been ongoing since December, with both the PDP and the APC seeking to join the legal proceedings. This has resulted in prolonged legal battles between the parties involved.
But the court was confronted on Monday with a petition signed by Martin Amaewhule and addressed to Justice John Tsoho, seeking the reassignment of the case to another court.
Justice Pam, who read the petition in the open court, noted that the petitioner, Amaewhule, prayed to the CJ of the High Court to stop the hearing process and transfer the case to another court.
TimesNow.com.ng earlier reported that the Rivers State High Court had been commended for its ruling on the PDP membership status of the pro-Wike-led House of Assembly.
In an interview with TimesNow.com.ng, Okanlawon Gaffar, a lawyer, said there was no written document that the lawmakers left the PDP.
Buttressing his point, the legal practitioner described the situation as the over-judicialisation of Nigeria’s democracy.
Source: TimesNow.com.ng
