ANTI-AMAECHI LAWMAKERS SHUN COMMISSION OF INQUIRY SET UP BY STATE GOVERNMENT. Five members of the Rivers State House of Assembly Monday boycotted the sitting of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the state government to look into last month’s fracas at the assembly.The lawmakers rather approached a High Court sitting in Port Harcourt seeking, among other things, to stop the commission from going ahead with its activities on the grounds that members of the panel were appointed by the state Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, whom they alleged was a party in the crisis to be investigated by the commission. This came as the Chief of Staff to Amaechi, Chief Tony Okocha, said the current provocations against the governor by the opposition would not make him shift focus from the development of the state.At the resumed sitting of the commission yesterday, the other 27 lawmakers of the assembly were represented by their counsel, but the five anti-Amaechi lawmakers were neither present nor represented. Chairman of the commission, Justice Biobele Georgewill, later adjourned until Thursday, after Mr. Ken Atsuwete, counsel to the Speaker of the assembly, Otelemaba Amachree, and the counsel, who represented the other 25 lawmakers pleaded for 24 hours extension to enable them put their documents in order. Georgewill, however, granted the lawmakers 48 hours and called on all parties in the crisis to be free to file their memos at the commission, stressing that the panel would be fair to all. According to him, “No kobo needs to be paid to file your memo. Just do it with the secretary of the commission. Even if you don’t have a lawyer, the commission has a lawyer for you. This commission is for everybody affected by the crisis and anybody who has one thing or the other to tell us. It is a fact-finding commission. We are not here to imprison anybody. We are out to get to the root of the matter.” While the commission was sitting, the anti-Amaechi lawmakers, through the member representing Port Harcourt constituency III, Victor Ihunwo, approached the High Court, presided over by Justice Iyayi Lamikanra, to among other things, stop the commission from going ahead with its activities. He argued that members of the commission were appointed by Amaechi, whom he alleged was a party in the crisis to be investigated. In the motion he filed before the court, Ihunwo said: “That Amaechi, the 10th respondent and his government represented by the 11th respondent instigated the crisis and supervised the execution of said crisis which he now purports an inquiry into by the instrumentality of a commission of inquiry selected, appointed and inaugurated by him, that is, the so-called judicial commission of inquiry comprised the first set of respondents. “The first set of respondents as the Judicial Commission of Inquiry instituted by the 10th respondent lacks jurisdiction to inquire into the terms of reference subject matter of the commission. “The 10th respondent cannot be a judge in his own cause, wherein he can choose the members of the commission who are to inquire into the same crisis which he did not only precipitate but participated actively in. “The membership of the commission as constituted is against the rule of natural justice.” He therefore prayed for “an order of injunction restraining the second set of respondents from receiving any report from the first set of respondents, or in any manner whatsoever implementing or putting into use any report, findings or opinion tendered by or submitted by the 1st set of respondents in their capacity as a judicial commission of inquiry or under any guise whatsoever.” The presiding judge, Lamikanra, fixed Friday for ruling on the matter.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 18:36:04 +0000
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