*Fubara’s Team Brainstorms, Looks Towards Supreme Court
Thursday’s judgement of the court of appeal presided over by Mr Justice Jimi Olukayode Bade has elicited mixed reactions and interpretations, causing more problems in the political ecosystem of River State.
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, Chief Tony Okocha says the judgement has affirmed Martins Amaewhule and the 26 others as members of the assembly.
The confusion in interpretation of the court judgment notwithstanding, the Amaewhule camp has been jubilating since the judgement was delivered. Some folks in that camp even composed a song in Ikwerre language, where they tend to mock Fubara whom they said had lost out.
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.
He also said the implication of the appeal court judgement was 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 who was being interviewed by a radio station in the state capital noted that the court of appeal’s decision had nothing to do with the status of the Amaewhule groups as members of the assembly.
Saying that Amaewhule and his colleagues remained non members of the assembly until a contrary pronouncement was made by a competent court, Ekinne said the 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.
Another lawyer, Richard Wokocha, who also spoke on the matter agreed with the position of Ekinne, that the court judgement did not declare Amaewhule and his colleagues as members of the state assembly.
Meanwhile, officials of the Rivers State government have been in series of meetings since the the court delivered the judgement. Neither the commissioner for justice, Dagogo Iboroma, SAN, nor his information counterpart, Joe Johnson was able to talk to TNN on the issue on Thursday.
But an official who did not want to be named was confided in TNN that the government was studying the judgement and that they were considering approaching the apex court for reprieve.
