A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, will, on December 5, 2023, commence hearing on a matter brought by the member representing Ahoada East State Constituency 2 in the state House of Assembly, Edison Ehie, seeking to restrain Martins Amaewhule from presiding over the activities of the Assembly.
The presiding judge, Justice Phoebe Ayua, adjourned the case till December to enable parties to serve processes on each other after they informed the court of difficulties in serving the processes.
When the matter came up in court on Monday, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, K.C.O. Njemanze, informed the court of his appearance to replace the plaintiff’s counsel. This oral application was objected to by N.O Akporuvweku, the lead counsel to the applicant, who was in charge of the case earlier.
Akporuvweku argued that they had not been served any notice of change in counsel and insisted they remain the defendants for the plaintiff.
Meanwhile, the counsel to the first and second defendants, Ferdinand Oshoke, prayed the court to consolidate and accelerate the hearing on all applications filed in the matter since it borders on the legislative arm of government.
Amaewhule and Ehie lead separate factions of the Assembly as speakers.
The division stemmed after the inferno that rocked the hallowed chamber of the Assembly on October 29 and the subsequent attempted impeachment of Governor Siminalayi Fubara on October 30.
Ehie is an ally of Governor Fubara, while Amaewhule is loyal to former governor Nyesom Wike, now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who has been fingered as being the mastermind of the impeachment attempt on the governor.
Fubara and Wike fell out less than six months after the former was sworn into office.
The reasons for their fallout are still speculated, as no credible reasons for the sudden rift between the duo have surfaced.
