Amaechi’s Quest On Rivers PDP Suffers Setback Embattled Governor Rotimi Amaechi of rivers state suffered a setback in his quest to recover the machinery of the state chapter of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), which was wrested from him following the sacking of the former executive committee of the party by an Abuja High Court last April.Following the court order sacking the Godspower Umejuru Ake-led executives who are loyalists of Governor Amaechi and the inauguration of the Chief Obuah Amaechi Felix and Walter Ibibia Opuene, backed by Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, as chairman and secretary respectively, Chief Ake approached the appellate court seeking to stay the execution of the judgment which sacked him and other members of his former executive committee from office.At the resumed hearing of the appeal against the Federal High Court judgment, the court read a letter written by the counsel representing the Peoples’ Democratic Party, Mr. Ken Njamanze, informing the court of his visit to the United States of America on urgent medical attention.The court led by Justice Amiru Sanusi thereafter called on the lawyers in the matter to react to the said letter and to address the court on whether the matter can go on in view of the content of the letter.Chief Ake’s lawyer, Mr Joseph Dawodu, argued that the letter is not enough to stop the scheduled proceedings from taking place and noted that having ordered an accelerated hearing in the appeal, the court should not be persuaded not to go ahead with the business of the day, on account of the letter which he said was devoid of any material annexure to the letter showing the seriousness or nature of the medical trip.On his part, Chief Godwin Obla, representing Chief Obuah, Amaechi Felix and Walter Ibibia Opuene, pointed out that the said letter was duly signed by Mr. Njamanze who is a senior advocate of Nigeria and observed that his absence from court, as the letter indicated, is occasioned by something he had no control of. He urged the court to oblige the lawyer since his absence was on account of medical reasons.Mr Ibrahim Bawa who represented the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) also aligned himself with Chief Obla on the issue pointing out that as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Njamanze will not deceive the court over the matter of his health.And having listened to all parties in the case, in a short ruling, the court stated that it is inclined to agree with Joseph Dawodu on the point that Mr Njamanze ought to have detailed somebody from his office to stand in for him, but since the lawyer’s trip abroad was on an urgent medical purpose, that the court has no cause to disapprove the letter.The matter was thereafter adjourned to 5thNovember for hearing.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 21:11:30 +0000
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