Impeachment: Madumere drags Chief Judge, Speaker to court

Embattled Imo State Deputy Governor, Prince Eze Madumere, has dragged the State Chief Judge, Justice Paschal Nnadi, the Speaker, Imo State House of Assembly, Mr Acho Ihim and Imo State House of Assembly to court, urging it to quash the planned impeachment initiated by the lawmakers.

Madumere had in the suit, HOW/531/2018, sought a declaration that the Speaker and the House of Assembly, having not personally served the purported notice of gross misconduct dated July 10, 2018, or a notice of any allegation made by the legislature on him, “cannot be said to have commenced or initiated the process of the removal of the plaintiff from office as Deputy Governor of Imo State, in accordance with the provisions of Section 188(1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended”.

Part of the eight-point relief sought by Madumere read: “An order restraining the first defendant (the Chief Judge) from appointing a panel of seven persons to investigate the allegation(s) against the plaintiff, upon the purported request of the second defendant (Speaker), acting on the unconstitutional resolution or motion of the third defendant (House of Assembly) made on July 11, 2018.”

The court was also urged to decide “whether the purported undated report of the assembly’s six-man ad hoc committee, which held that a prima facie case has been made out against the plaintiff is a nullity, having been made without locus standi and in breach of the plaintiff’s right to fair hearing.”

Madumere also prayed the court to decide whether the Chief Judge can validly appoint a seven-man panel to investigate the assembly’s “notice of gross misconduct,” dated July 10, 2018, when the speaker’s request to that effect “is unconstitutional, null and void, having not complied with the provisions of Section 188(1), (2), (3) and (4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended.”

As at the time of going to press, no date for the commencement of hearing has been fixed. Read more<<<<<