Probe River High Court Judge Over Assembly Controversial Judgment, CJA Tells NJC

<h4>Probe River High Court Judge<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that the National Judicial Council&comma; NJC&comma; has been called upon to immediately begin a probe of the Rivers State High Court&comma; following the judgment that re-instated the sacked lawmakers in the State House of Assembly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Coalition for Justice and Accountability&comma; &lpar;CJA&rpar;&comma; through its President Comrade Dada Segun Akin&comma; faulted the judgement of the court that ordered the 27 lawmakers to return to the Rivers State House of Assembly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Coalition condemns in strong terms the judgment delivered by a Rivers State High Court&comma; which ruled that&comma; the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who move from the Peoples Democratic Party&comma; PDP&comma; to the All Progressives Congress&comma; APC&comma; are still members of the PDP and Rivers State House of Assembly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the group&comma; the judgment can only be celebrated by enemies of the judiciary&comma; Rivers State and Nigeria&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Recall that&comma;in December 2023&comma; 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">FCT&comma; Nyesom Wike&comma;<&sol;a> led by the then Speaker of the Rivers Assembly&comma; Martin Amawhule&comma; defected from the Peoples Democratic Party&comma; PDP&comma; to the All Progressives Congress&comma; APC&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In line with the constitutional provision that a legislator who defects should vacate his seat&comma;a Rivers State High Court restrained the defected lawmakers from parading as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With the restraining order&comma; Hon Victor Oko-Jumbo was elected as Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a judgement delivered by a Rivers State High Court&comma; the judge after striking out the suit based on the preliminary objection went into the merit and held that the defected members are still members of the PDP&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The group said in a statement shortly after the judgement was delivered&comma; <em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;We are shocked that the judge arrive at the conclusion that the defected members were still members of the PDP when the members themselves stated reasons for their defection&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;In the letter of defection submitted by Martins Amaewhule and 25 others on the floor of the Rivers State House of Assembly on December 18th&comma; 2023&comma; the members cited division in the PDP as the reason for their defection&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;Same evidence was placed before the court&comma;and the judge still went ahead to rule that the defected members are still PDP members&comma; and therefore still members of the Rivers State House of Assembly&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The coalition said it had revealed and warned of the plot to get favourable judgment and return the Pro-Wike lawmakers to the House last week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;It is unfortunate that&comma; this sad day for our judiciary is before us&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;We however wish to state that&comma; the judgment is unacceptable and the matter must be pursued by the plaintiffs to a logical conclusion&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;Finally&comma; we call on the National Judicial Commission&lpar;NJC&rpar; to immediately wade into this issue at the Rivers State High Court&comma; Degema&comma; because the judgment will cause further damage to the already battered image of the judiciary&&num;8221&semi;&comma; the coalition said&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;21622" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-21622" style&equals;"width&colon; 162px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-21622" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;07&sol;images-6&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Probe River High Court Judge " width&equals;"162" height&equals;"108" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-21622" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;