Governor Obi Wins Again Posted by admin on 2007/2/9 14:35:10 (829 reads)
By Jude Orji/Awka
There was jubilation in Awka, the Anambra State capital, this morning as the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu dismissed the application filed by the state’s lawmakers against a High Court order nullifying the impeachment of Mr. Peter Obi as governor of the state. In a unanimous ruling, the five justices of the court upheld the judgement of the High Court quashing Obi’s impeachment and ordered his immediate reinstatement. The lead judgement which was read by Justice Jim Olukayode Bada, said the purported impeachment of Obi by the state’s lawmakers was null and void and of no effect. “I hereby confirm the relief granted the first respondent (Peter Obi) by the High Court of Anambra State. The removal is hereby set aside. He (Obi) should be reinstated immediately,” Justice Bada stated categorically.
Other justices on the Appeal Court panel are Justice James Ogebe, Justice Denton-West Sotonye, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun and Justice Muhammed Ladan Ismail. The court directed the police and the security agencies to make sure that Obi was reinstated immediately. Ruling on the application filed by the Anambra lawmakers, Justice Bada said Obi was not duly served the motion for impeachment and that the notice published in a national newspaper was addressed to the Secretary to the State Government and not Governor Peter Obi. The Appeal Court also ruled that the former Chief Judge of Anambra State, Justice Umegbolu Nri-Ezedi had the right to transfer the case to another court. An Anambra High Court had on 28 December last year, quashed the impeachment of Obi by the state lawmakers but the latter filed an application at the Appeal Court urging it to question the High Court judgement. Reacting to the judgement of the appeal court, the new counsel to the lawmakers, Adewale Adebayo, said: “We are coming back to this court to set aside this judgement.” Earlier, Adebayo had urged the upper court to ‘arrest’ (suspend) the judgement delivered by the Anambra High Court quashing the impeachment of Obi. He called for a fresh trial but his arguments were dismissed by the court.
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