The Rivers State Government has officially responded to recent court proceedings concerning the status of 27 lawmakers in the Rivers State House of Assembly.
The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Dagogo Iboroma, SAN, clarified today that Martins Amaewhule and 26 other lawmakers, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), are no longer PDP members.
Addressing the press, Iboroma emphasized that the recent judgment in SUIT NO DHC/20/CS/2024 did not declare the seats of these lawmakers vacant.
He said, instead, the court struck out the suit for lack of locus standi and jurisdiction, and for being an abuse of court process. This outcome has been misrepresented in various media reports.
Iboroma pointed out that Amaewhule and his colleagues’ defection to the APC on December 11, 2023, is well-documented in affidavit evidence submitted in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/1681/CS/2023, currently pending before the Federal High Court, Abuja Division.
”By section 272(3) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, it is only the Federal High Court that can determine whether Martins Amaewhule and 26 others are still members of Peoples Democratic Party and also members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
”This much was held by the trial court. However, you will recall that this is a subsisting order of interlocutory injunction in Suit No. PHC/512/CS/2024 restraining Martins Amaewhule and his co-travellers from further parading or presenting themselves as lawmakers in Rivers State pending the determination of the substantive suit, which has not been appealed against to date,” he said.
The Attorney-General urged the public to disregard misleading reports suggesting that Amaewhule and the other lawmakers remain members of the PDP and the House of Assembly.