Taciturn, smart, unassuming and very proactive governor of Rivers State, Sim Fubara went a step higher than his former political godfather and minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike on Monday, when he secured an interlocutory injunction from the state high court to checkmate the Mr Martin Chike Amaewhule and his colleagues who defected from the PDP to the APC, against their suspected plot to impeach him.
Amaewhule may have been emboldened by the court of appeal judgement of last week to summon his colleagues to sit on Monday in the name of the Rivers State House of Assembly. The court of appeal judgement has been given various interpretations by those who are for and against Fubara.
For Amaewhule, the meaning of the appeal judgement was to the effect that he and his 26 colleagues were legitimate members of the state house of assembly and could therefore meet to carry out legislative functions.
They sat at the legislative quarters and issued a 7-day ultimatum to the governor to re-present the 2024 budget to them. Their action signaled the beginning of confrontations that awaited Fubara, including a plot to impeach him if he did not obey their orders.
But Fubara appeared to have pulled another rug off their feet with the proactive legal step against the Wike group. The state attorney-general and commissioner for justice, Dagogo Iboroma, SAN, approached the court presided over by Mr Justice Jumbo Stephens on Monday for cover and was granted an order preventing the state chief judge who is a co-defendant, from accepting any orders from the Amaewhule group.
The orders granted were as follows:
- That an Order of Interim Injunction is hereby made restraining the 31 and 32nd Defendants from dealing or howsoever relating with the 1″- 27th Defendants as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and from receiving, forwarding or howsoever acting on any resolutions, articles of impeachment or other documents or communication from the 127th Defendants pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction already filed herein.
- That the parties to this suit are hereby directed to maintain the status quo ante litem in this suit as at 5th July 2024 pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction already filed herein.
- An Order is hereby made for substituted service of the originating and other processes in this suit on the 1-30th Defendants by pasting the same at the gate of the Rivers State House of Assembly Quarters, opposite former NDDC headquarters, off Aba Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
- That this matter is hereby adjourned to the 15th day of July 2024 for the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction
