Political analyst, Mahmud Jega, has pointed out that all matters of impeachment of Governors and their Deputies requires a level of partisanship on the part of the Chief Justice of State for it to be successful.
Speaking in connection to the move to being made by the Rivers State House of Assembly to impeach Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his Deputy, the analyst said that this was why a few months ago, the pro-Wike members in the Rivers House of Assembly tried to remove the Chief Judge, Samuel Amadi.
He said that from all indications, the House had failed to get cooperation from him to get a panel that would automatically return a guilty verdict against Fubara and his deputy.
Speaking on Arise News, Jega said, “You see when I think back as far back as the Second Republic, in all impeachment matters of governors and deputy governors, it requires a certain level of partisanship on the part of the chief judges of states for it to be successful.
“Why did I say that, the courts themselves in 1981 when we had the first case of the Kaduna state assembly trying to impeach the governor, the High Court, the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court all said that the courts cannot stop the assembly from impeachment process because it’s like stopping it from passing any other law, because they are constitutionally empowered to do that.
“But this time, as we can see, the courts in Rivers in particular, have stopped the process. That’s just one point. Now, when we discussed this matter some months ago, I did point out that, okay, the Wike camp has the overwhelming majority of members of the Rivers assembly enough to impeach the governor, but they have one obstacle, which is the Chief Judge of Rivers State.
“It is the Chief Judge who will appoint the panel. And in all the experiences that we have had of impeachment of governors and deputy governors, the Chief Judges usually collaborate to set up a panel that will return a guilty verdict.
“And the Constitution says, If the panel brings back not guilty verdict, that is the end of the process.
“And I suspect that in Rivers state, we are heading in the same direction.
“And the pro- Wike members of the assembly were aware of it, because some months ago, they tried to remove this chief judge, Samuel Amadi. They tried to remove him.
“They said that he falsified his age or something like that, and I could see immediately it was because they probably failed to get his cooperation to set up a kind of panel that will automatically return a guilty verdict against the governor.
“But now we haven’t even gotten to that stage. He got one of his colleagues in the same high court to issue an order, and he said, I must respect this order.
“And then the assembly members said they are appealing, and this kind of thing can take a very long time, but in the end, even if the Wike Camp wins, it is still the same Chief Judge who will set up the panel to probe the allegations, and we’ll see how it goes.”