Stop Twisting Simple Court Verdict, Eze Tells Wike’s Supporters, Says Oko-Jumbo Remain Speaker

Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, the chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has stated that the joy in the FCT Minister’s camp over the Court of Appeal ruling nullifying the Interlocutory injunction issued by a State High Court in Port Harcourt prohibiting Martins Amaewhule and associates from parading themselves as Speaker and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly is simply an early exaltation based on erroneous interpretation of the decision and a misperception of the “ratio dividend.”

In a statement made available to the media, Chief Eze said the Appellate Court was right in its reasoning that by Section 272 of the Nigerian Constitution, which vests exclusive jurisdiction on the Federal High on matters about whether the seat of a member of a State House of Assembly has ceased or become vacant, a State High Court is squarely robbed of jurisdiction to entertain the same matters of nature.

The erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP), however, dispelled rumours that the court reinstated Marthins Amaewhule and co, noting that the substance of the matter was never brought to the appellate court, the same having not been heard by the court below.

With the Appellate Court’s verdict, the matter would be re-litigated at the Federal High Court, which is the court clothed with the requisite jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

He said Victor Oko Jumbo remains the legitimate Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, and that in effect, the worst that Marthin Amaewhule and co. can make out of the ruling is to continue to wallow in illegality, which does not affect the legitimacy of Oko-Jumbo as Speaker.

Former Speaker, Edison Ehie, in line with due process of law, declared the seats of Martins Amaewhule and others vacant upon their defection from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the political organisation on which they were elected, to the All Progressives Congress for no verifiable, cogent reason, and till date no court has voided this stand.

The Constitution is clear and unambiguous and needs no interpretation to the effect that upon their defection, the former Speaker, Amaewhule, and his colleagues automatically lost their seats, and the verdict of the Appeal Court did not invalidate the action of Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie declaring their seats vacant or voiding their exit from the PDP, as they have turned around to claim they never left the party.

Eze called on supporters of the FCT Minister not to deliberately sugarcoat the position of the court as a window to cause crisis in the state as the seats of Amaewhule and others remain vacant until a competent court declares otherwise, which is unlikely.

The APC Chief Counsel counselled law-abiding citizens of Rivers State to be calm, and peaceful and not give in to the plot of those he called confused ex-lawmakers to ignite anarchy in the state to achieve their sinister aim of declaring a state of emergency.

He postulated further that it is unfortunate that both Mr. President and political stakeholders are just watching a plot that is capable of derailing and truncating our hard-earned democracy without showing or demonstrating any desire to call WIKE and his misguided followers to order.

Eze said the Rivers Assembly Speaker, Oko-Jumbo, and his colleagues are on the right path for taking the matter further to the Supreme Court, even though the ruling of the Appeal Court did not reinstate Amaewhule and co., stressing that it is good to test the turbulent waters of legal mechanics to expand our jurisprudence.