KEY POINTS

• Rivers Chief Judge Simeon Amadi has declined to set up a probe panel to investigate Governor Fubara, citing binding court injunctions.

• The impeachment process was halted after a High Court restrained the chief judge from acting on any impeachment-related request.

• The matter is now before the Court of Appeal, effectively freezing further action by the state assembly.

The Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Simeon Amadi, has declined a request by the Rivers State House of Assembly to constitute a judicial panel to investigate Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu, over allegations of gross misconduct. Lawmakers had asked the chief judge to set up a seven-member panel under Section 188 of the Constitution to probe allegations against Fubara and Odu.

The impeachment process was formally triggered on January 8 after the leader of the assembly, Major Jack, read out allegations of gross misconduct against the governor. The motion was reportedly endorsed by 26 members of the House.

On January 16, the assembly passed a resolution requesting the chief judge to begin the investigative process.

Court orders halt impeachment steps

Justice Amadi wrote a letter to Speaker Martin Amaewhule on January 20 saying that his office had received two temporary injunctions on January 16 as a result of separate lawsuits filed by Governor Fubara and Deputy Governor Odu.

He said that the orders made it clear that he could not receive, think about, or act on any request or resolution about the impeachment of the governor or his deputy.

Justice Florence Fiberesima of the High Court in Port Harcourt issued the injunctions, which stopped the chief judge from doing anything that could speed up the impeachment process.

Justice Amadi said that the Rivers State House of Assembly had already asked the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt to look at the interim orders. He said that his office got notices of appeal on January 19 and 20.

He said that the legal principle of lis pendens meant that no one could do anything else about the case until the appeal was decided.

Amadi said, “Because of what has been said, my hands are tied because there are still interim orders of injunction and appeal against those orders.”

He went on to say that, because of this, he was legally unable to carry out his constitutional duties under Section 188(5) of the Constitution at this time.