The Court of Appeal, Abuja division, had on Thursday, dismissed the ex parte order issued on May 10, 2024, by the Rivers State High Court, Port Harcourt, which barred Martin Amaewhule from parading himself as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
A three-man panel led by Justice Jimi Olukayode-Bada also dismissed the decision of the state high court stopping the 24 members of the Assembly loyal to ex-Rivers governor, Nyesom Wike, from accessing the complex or carrying out any legislative assignment in the name of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
The court in its judgment, upheld the appeal filed by a factional Speaker of the River State House of Assembly, Amaewhule, and 24 others against the Speaker, Victor Oko-Jumbo, and two others.
The Amaewhule-led lawmakers had in December 2023 announced their defection from the PDP to the APC amid the political rift between Wike and the incumbent Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
The state high court had barred the pro-Wike lawmakers from the Assembly based on a suit seeking to declare their seats vacant on the basis that they defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.
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The Thursday appeal court judgement has however thrown the state into confusion due to different interpretations.
While those in support of Sim Fubara and the three lawmakers hold the view that the appeal court did not invalidate the position of Oko Jumbo as speaker of the state house of assembly, the APC caretaker committee chairman in Rivers State, Tony Okocha says the judgement has affirmed Martins Amaewhule and the 26 others as members of the assembly.
Okocha who addressed some journalists at the APC secretariat on Thursday after the court judgement said Amaewhule had been confirmed as speaker, adding that while the 27 lawmakers can begin to make laws for the state from now and that all the actions taken in the state that flowed from the decisions of the jumbo-led house of assembly were null and void and of no effect.
A lawyer in the state, Henry Ekinne, of the CDHR in an interview with a radio station noted that the court of appeal’s decision had nothing to do with the status of the Amaewhule groups as members of the assembly.
Ekinne, maintained that Amaewhule and his colleagues remained non members of the assembly until a contrary pronouncement was made by a competent court, emphasizing that court of appeal only dealt with the issue of jurisdiction as it concerns the verdict of the Rivers State High Court which had granted an interlocutory injunction restraining Amaewule and 26 others from parading themselves as members of the assembly.
While the Rivers state government is yet to respond to the judgement, an official who spoke on the condition of unanimity, said the government was studying the judgement and that they were considering approaching the apex court for reprieve.
