Rivers State House of Assembly factional Speaker, Victor Oko-Jumbo, announced during Friday’s plenary session at Government House that the Assembly is appealing the Court of Appeal’s judgment on the jurisdiction of the Rivers State High Court to hear suit number PHC/1512/CS/2024.
Oko-Jumbo described the judgment as a “miscarriage of justice” and directed the Assembly’s legal team to promptly proceed to the Supreme Court to challenge the ruling.
This comes after the Court of Appeal recently struck out an interlocutory injunction barring Martin Amaewhule and 24 others from claiming to be lawmakers, citing lack of jurisdiction.
Oko-Jumbo and others, on the other hand, contend that the Court omitted to disclose the defectors' membership status and are attempting to reverse the ruling.
Oko-Jumbo recalled that on December 11, 2023, Martin Amaewhule and 24 other PDP members defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), forcing former Speaker Edison Ehie to declare their seats vacant on December 13, 2023.
Oko-Jumbo was giving "clarity" on the status of former members who left the PDP to join the APC in December 2023. According to Oko-Jumbo, no Nigerian court has overturned this declaration.
He did point out, though, that the Amaewhule and others continued to present themselves as members of the RSHA in spite of their defection and empty seats, which prompted a lawsuit from lawful House members.
He emphasised that neither the Court of Appeal's ruling nor its declaration that Martin Amaewhule and the other twenty-four had defected from the PDP to the APC or that they were members of the RSHA revealed that the RSHA had appealed the Court of Appeal's ruling to the Supreme Court in order to overturn the ruling of the lower court.