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A High Court sitting in Lokoja, Kogi State capital on Thursday declared the impeachment of the former deputy governor, Simon Achuba, unconstitutional, null and void.
Justice John Olorunfemi in a judgement delivered at Kogi High Court 4 declared the decision of the State House of Assembly to proceed with the impeachment last October as an act of “legislative rascality devoid of reasoning”.
He added that he could not understand why the legislators whose responsibility is to make laws for the state now turned out to be lawbreakers, choosing to proceed with the purported impeachment even when the seven man-committee set out by the chief judge of the state to investigate allegations of gross misconduct against the deputy governor have declared him not guilty.
He equally granted all the prayers of the defendant to the effect that the impeachment of the deputy governor carried out by the State House of Assembly and subsequent swearing in of Edward Onoja on the 18th October 2019 is null,void and therefore is of no consequence.
He said that the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Nasir Ajana, should not have gone ahead with the swearing-in of Onoja as no further action should have taken place after the “no guilty verdict” of the seven-man committee set up to investigate the deputy governor, adding that all the relieves sought by the claimant be granted without further delay.
Contributing to the judgement, Barrister Ojonimi Apeh who represented Jibrin Okutepa (SAN) described the court’s decision as a victory for democracy and rule of law, as he commended the judge for the well-researched judgment and the industry put into writing the judgement. He added however that they are prepared to meet their opponents at the appeal court should they not be satisfied with decision of the court.
Also speaking on the Court’s decision, Barrister Yemi Mohammed who represented the Chief Judge of Kogi State, Nasir Ajana, commended the judge for the judgment. He absorbed his client from all blames and said that Justice Ajana only discharged his administrative duty as there was no Court injunction to a new deputy governor being sworn in at that time.
In a related development, the High Court ruled that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had no candidate in the November 16 governorship election in the state.
Justice Olorunfemi declared Thursday PDP primary election conducted on 3rd September 2019 which produce Musa Wada as the flag bearer of PDP was fraught with irregularities saying that such an exercise with an hour-long downpour and sporadic gunshots that led to delegates scampering for safety could not be said to be fair enough to produce a candidate.
The ruling was in a pre-election matter filed by the eldest son of a former governor of the state Ibrahim Idris, Abubakar challenging the candidature of Engineer Musa Wada as the flag bearer of the PDP in the November 16, 2019 governorship election.
“Neither the claimant, Abubakar Idris nor the defendant, Musa Wada, can lay claim to be the authentic flag bearer of the People’s Democratic Party since the primary was inconclusive.
“The claimant who averred that he would have won the primary conducted by the 1st defendant if the missing votes which belonged to him were added to his votes, could not convince the court to deliver judgement in his favour.”
Justice Olorunfemi , however, submitted that the second defendant could not convince the court that he actually won the party primary, which was marred with rancour and acrimony, arising from a pandemonium, due to sporadic gunshots, that compelled the participants to scamper for safety that night .
