FHC Fixes April 30 to Hear Suit Seeking to Vacate Seats of 27 Rivers Lawmakers
A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, yesterday, adjourned till April 30th, 2025, to continue hearing the suit seeking that the seats of the embattled Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule and 26 others be declared vacant.
The suit was filed by the lawmakers loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, and they were Hon. Victor Oko-Jumbo (Speaker), Hon Adolphus Orubienimigha, and Sokari Goodboy Sokarifor.
Case was adjourned for adoption of written processes on affidavits and counter affidavits.
Oko-Jumbo and the two other lawmakers had filed the matter before Justice Emmanuel Obile of the federal high court, asking that the seats of the embattled lawmakers be declared vacant following their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that sponsored their election to the All Progressives Congress (APC)
When the matter was mentioned in court, lead counsel for Oko-Jumbo and two others, Prof Yusuf Ali, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, told the court that counsel for the 1-15 defendants, Ferdinand Orbih, SAN, filed another set of counter affidavits via WhatsApp on Saturday February 15, 2025.
Her added that his team responding to the affidavit, filed a further counter affidavit on Monday, February 17, 2025.
Ali, who led about 33 senior lawyers, told the court that, “Today is for adoption of processes. On Saturday, February 15, 2025, I got a message from counsel representing 1-15 defendants (Orbih), that he filed another set of further counter affidavits, but was not able to serve our team on Friday. He did forward the documents via WhatsApp.
“Today is the first working day to react to the documents. We filed a further affidavit in reaction to the further counter affidavit by the defendants, and it was filed today, February 17, 2025.”
Orbih, who did not counter submission of the applicant counsel, claimed that the reason it was filed late was because of the delay in getting the Supreme Court ruling.
Reacting to arguments and request of the counsels in the matter, the trial Judge, Justice Obile, said the court could not continue to share proceedings with the apex court and adjourned till April 30, for adoption of written processes by which time the supreme court would have ruled on matter before with Rivers State.
He noted that it is important to wait for the decisions of the supreme court on the plethora of appeals as they concerned Rivers State government before it.
