On Friday, Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule was prevented from presenting himself as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly by a Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt.

Following consideration of a motion stating that his seat had been declared empty, the court issued the order.

While ruling on a motion ex parte brought before it by the newly elected factional Speaker of the House, Hon. Victor Oko Jumbo, and two other parties, His Lordship, Hon. Justice Charles N. Wali, the presiding Judge of High Court 19, also prohibited 24 other Assembly members from entering the complex or performing any similar legislative assignment in the name of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

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In a lawsuit filed under the case number PHC/1512/C5/2024, the Speaker, Hon. Jumbo, and his associates requested that the court issue an injunction prohibiting individuals who defected ffrom the political party that initially supported them to the Assembly from acting as members of the Parliament after losing their seats.

Thus, Justice Wali issued an order for an interim injunction “restraining the 1st to 25th Defendants from parading and holding out themselves as members of 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 any other place whatsoever to purport to carry out the legislative business of the Rivers State House of Assembly, their legislative seats having been declared vacant pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice”.

An Order of interim injunction was also granted, “restraining the 26th to 28th Defendants from dealing with, interfacing, accepting any resolutions, bills and/or howsoever interacting with the 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 Motion on Notice”.

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The factional Speaker, Amaewhule, and his associates who changed parties after winning elections are the first through 25th defendants in this ongoing lawsuit. The 26th and 28th defendants are Governor Siminalayi Fubara, the state attorney general, and the chief judge of Rivers State, respectively.

The court further ordered that, “this Order, the Motion on Notice and the writ and other processes in this case be served on the 1st to 25th Defendants/Respondents within seven (7) days from date, by substituted means to wit: pasting at the entrance gate of the Rivers State House of Assembly Legislative Quarters, Off Aba Road, Port Harcourt and for such service to be deemed good and proper”.

The motion on notice was granted, and the case was postponed until May 29, 2024.

Recall that in December 2023, the ruling PDP demanded that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) start the process of holding new elections for the 27 State Constituencies in Rivers State as soon as possible. This was in response to 27 of its members who had won elections on party tickets defecting to the APC.

The PDP noted that, as a result of their departure from the party and the platform on which they were elected to the Rivers State House of Assembly, Section 109 (1) (g) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) declares the seats of the corresponding 27 lawmakers vacant.

“A Member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected,” the Nigerian constitution’s Section 109. (1) (g) declares.

The new Speaker, Hon. Jumbo, took office on Wednesday, May 8, 2024.

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