Impeachment: Ondo Assembly disobeying court order undemocratic – Lawyer
Impeachment: Ondo Assembly disobeying court order undemocratic – Lawyer
As the impeachment process of the Ondo Deputy Governor, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa, by the state House of Assembly is ongoing, a legal practitioner, Mr Allen Sowore said the House was disobeying the court order by going ahead with the process, despite being stopped by the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The Assembly, during its last plenary, directed the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Olusegun Odusola to set up a seven-man panel to investigate the allegation of gross misconduct levelled against the embattled deputy governor, saying Aiyedatiwa failed to respond to House, the notice of allegations against him.
Sowore in a statement, on Friday, said the action of the Assembly was condemnable and undemocratic.
He said, “It is important to recall that Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja, last week, granted an ex-parte order restraining the state House of Assembly from proceeding with the impeachment plan of the state Deputy Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa.
“The settled position of law is that the orders of the court, whether of this one or some others, whether valid or not must be obeyed until it is set aside, as long as it is subsisting; by all, no matter how lowly or highly placed in the society.
“This recent unpatriotic action by the speaker is an aberration and undemocratic for a leader of an arm of government established by the constitution to flagrantly disregard and discard a valid court order from a court of competent jurisdiction. This is tantamount to a direct invitation to anarchy and a rudderless state.
“Ostensibly, the speaker is attempting to disparage and discard the provisions of Section 6(6) a&b of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which vests and extends the judicial powers of the court.”
The state House of Assembly had earlier petitioned the National Judicial Council, reporting Justice Emeka Nwite for granting an ex-parte order restraining it from impeaching Aiyedatiwa.
In a petition addressed to the chairman of the NJC and signed by the Speaker of the House, Mr Olamide Oladiji, the Assembly accused Justice Nwite, by granting the order, of allegedly compromising his office and violating the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
A part of the petition read “As the Speaker of the 10th Ondo State House of Assembly, and on behalf of the entire members of the House of Assembly (hereinafter referred to as “ODHA”), I write your lordship to formally lodge a complaint against Hon. Justice Emeka Nwite of the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, for compromising his office and violating the extant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), ignoring judicial decisions of the appellate courts and extant practice directions and/or relevant circulars of the Federal High Court, to grant an unconstitutional, clearly malevolent, and ostensibly procured ex parte order on 26th September, 2023 in Suit FHC/ABJ/CS/1294/2023 restraining ODHA as an arm of government from exercising its constitutional powers.”
