Fubara Inches Forward As Pro-Wike Lawmakers Suffer Severe Setback 

● Journey to find succour through the courts enter interesting stage

By PHC Telegraph

As the battle to get at the real intent of constitutional provisions regarding the status of lawmakers who defect in a manner defined or rejected by the spirit of the law intensifies in court,

The battleground is Rivers State where a fierce fight for the control of its soul is being fought, and the fate of 25 lawmakers caught in the middle by the turn of events, hangs in the balance.

At the centre of the matter is what the Nigerian Constitution says in Section 109, particularly sub section (1)(g), about lawmakers who dump their political party for another while serving in parliament.

The Nigerian Constitution prescribes in Section 109(1)(g) that those who leave the political party platform on which they were elected to seek greener pastures elsewhere would be deemed to have abdicated their seats.

But the Constitution however implies that  such defecting lawmakers would be deemed to have acted in compliance with its proviso if they are able to establish that at the time of their defection, there was a “division” within the party.

Siminalayi Fubara, Governor of Rivers State, who declared that the 25 lawmakers do not exist in the eyes of the law appears to have inched a step forward in the ongoing fight to stop so-called pro-Wike lawmakers who are in court from attempting by any means to abuse the dictates of  the constitution.

A Port Harcourt High Court less than 24 hours ago granted an interlocutory injunction debarring the embattled Rivers lawmakers from parading or gathering under any guise as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

Pro-Fubara lawmakers led by Speaker Victor Oko-Jumbo and two others had approached the court formally seeking to prevent Martins Amaewhule and 24 others from carrying out legislative business as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

Granting the request of the plaintiffs, Justice C.N. Wali said the lawmakers who are loyal to ex-governor Nyesom Wike are by the order of court restrained  from gathering or parading as members of  the Assembly pending the determination of the substantive case.

   The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barrister Nyesom Wike and Governor Siminalayi Fubara fight for supremacy in and outside courtrooms.

 

“An order of interlocutory injunction is hereby granted”, Justice Wali noted, “preventing 1st to 25th defendants from parading and holding out themselves as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and/or meeting/sitting at the auditorium of the House of Assembly quarters located at off Aba Road, Port Harcourt or at any other place whatever to purport to carry out legislative business of the Rivers State House of Assembly, their legislative seats having been declared vacant pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

“An order of interlocutory injunction is hereby made restraining the 26th defendant to 28th defendant from dealing with, interfacing, accepting my resolutions, bills and or howsoever interfacing with 1st to 25th defendants in their purported capacities as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, their legislative seats having been declared vacant with effect from 13th December, 2023, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.”

The court had on the 10th of May granted an ex parte motion obviously restraining Fubara, his Attorney-General and the Chief Judge of Rivers State from having any dealings with the lawmakers in question.

That legal punch apparently delivered with some precision at a critical moment in the battle is being seen in some quarters as a major setback for the  pro-Wike lawmakers led by Amaewhule.

Among pro-Fubara forces who are battling to ensure that salient constitutional provisions regarding what should happen to lawmakers  who jump ship in the middle of the sea are not trampled upon, there are sighs of relief.

An attempt to secure a stay of execution in a court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has not seen the daylight. A date for hearing in the matter has been fixed.
Recall that a new twist was introduced when the 25 lawmakers that are fighting the fight of their lives reneged on their membership of the APC.

They inferred only recently that they are still  members of the PDP, the political platform on which they rode to power.

That position came as a great shock to many who have been monitoring the political scene in Rivers.

“On the mandate, we shall stand Jagaban!”, the lawmakers who were waving tiny APC flags sang the day Speaker Amaewhule declared they had left the PDP. Video clips showing what transpired on that day when the lawmakers made their move can still be found.

Whatever happens, providing answers to the real intent of Section 109, subsection (1)(g), despite a plethora of decided cases at the Supreme Court, would continue to occupy centrestage.

The Supreme Court recently annulled the seat of a lawmaker who defected from the Labour Party.

Lawmakers who jumped ship in Cross River State have equally been sent packing for dumping their party midstream.

For now, the die is cast as the war for the control of the heartbeat of the Rivers State continues.

It is not merely a poIitical confrontation, it is a resource war as well and many in the country may have to wait for a while to see in what direction the pendulum of justice will swing.