A Federal High Court in Abuja has voided the impeachment of the Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Hon. Momoh Jimoh Lawal, reinstating him and the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Aliyu Akuh as well as seven other Principal Officers of the state Assembly to their earlier positions.
The presiding judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba ruled on Thursday that in the 25-member assembly, only a fraction of members consented to the impeachment of Jimoh hence the impeachment did not follow constitutional provisions.
It would be recalled that some members of the House of Assembly had on February 16, 2016 impeached alongside the other principal officers. This plunged the state legislature into a protracted crisis; leading to the intervention of House of Representatives which ordered the shutting down of the assembly to forestall a degeneration of the situation.
Jimoh and the others had instituted a legal action at the court challenging his removal. They prayed the court to determine whether in view of provisions of the 1999 Constitution and Rules 3(1) & (2) of the Standing Rules of Kogi State House of Assembly dated February 15, 2016, their removal was not unconstitutional, illegal, null and void.
Delivering ruling in the suit, Dimgba ordered the reinstatement of the plaintiff as Speaker, adding that “the continued sitting and conduct of the affairs of the Kogi State House of Assembly by the 1st – 5th defendants after the purported removal of the 1st plaintiff and other principal officers of the House and purported installation of themselves as principal officers of the Kogi State House of Assembly on the 16th day of February, 2016, is illegal having regard to section 96(1) of the Constitution and Rule 5(1)”.
The judge said the removal of the principal officers was not in line with provisions of sections 90, 91, 92 (2) (c), 95 (1) & (2) and 96(1) & (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
The court consequently voided the purported election of Hon. Umar Imam as the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, as well as the emergency of four others- Friday Sani; Lawal A.T. Ahmed; Bello Abdullahi and John Abah as principal officers of the House.
Aside the Speaker and his Deputy, Hon. Kolawole Mathew, Osiyi Godwin, SundayShigaba, Ndako Idris, Oluwatoyin Lawal, Musa Jimoh and Victor Omofaye were also reinstated by the judgment.
The court was categorical that “the continued sitting and conduct of the affairs of the Kogi State House of Assembly by the 1st – 5th defendants after the purported removal of the 1st plaintiff and other principal officers of the House and purported installation of themselves as principal officers of the Kogi State House of Assembly on the 16th day of February, 2016, is illegal having regard to section 96(1) of the Constitution and Rule 5(1)”.
It further restrained the Inspector General of Police, Director General of the Department of State Services, Commandant of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps, who were 7th to 8th defendants in the suit, “from further barricading the complex of the House of Assembly and preventing the plaintiffs from accessing the hallowed chambers if the Kogi State House of Assembly to conduct their legal and legitimate duties as legislators validly elected to represent their various constituencies”.
However, the court declined to declare that the security agencies, by their actions, aided and abetted the five lawmakers to carry out the purported impeachment as well as subsequent withdrawal of the Speaker’s vehicles (official and personal) and withdrawal of security operatives attached to the embattled Speaker.
It also refused to award general damages in the sum of N500million. The judgement followed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/184/16, which the removed Speaker, his Deputy, seven other lawmakers and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, lodged before the court through their lawyer, Mr. Emeka Etiaba, SAN.
