A Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja has restored Mr Mahdi Gusau as the deputy governor of Zamfara State following his impeachment by the state’s House of Assembly on February 23, 2022, in spite of a subsisting court order.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in the judgement, also set aside all the steps and actions taken by the House of Assembly, former Gov. Bello Matawalle and the state’s chief judge in the purported impeachment of Gusau during the pendency of the suit in court.
According to the news Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Justice Ekwo, who held that the act of the then assembly’s speaker, ex-governor, chief judge and indeed others was an aberration and cannot be allowed to stand, described it as “null and void and of no effect whatsoever.”
“I agree with the learned silk for the plaintiff/applicant that the court must protect its dignity by reprimanding the 5th, 6th and 7th defendants (speaker, governor and chief judge) and undoing the steps, acts or proceedings taken in the impeachment while this suit was pending,” he said.
The judge also held that contrary to the argument of counsel to 5th to 38th defendants, he did not see in any of the judicial authorities cited and relied upon by the lawyer that authorises any litigant to take extra-judicial action when a case was pending in court.
“Once parties have turned their dispute over to the court for determination, the right to resort to self-help ends.
“So, it is not permissible for one of the parties to take any step of complete helplessness, or which may give the impression that the court Is being used as a mere subterfuge, to tie the result of litigation and the appropriate order of court before acting further,” he said, citing a previous case.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Matawalle, the three state’s senators, members of House of Representatives and that of House of Assembly had all defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC) on June 29, 2021.
The FHC had, on July 19, 2021, restrained the House of Assembly from proceeding with its planned impeachment of Gusau as deputy governor.
The court gave the order following an ex parte application brought by the PDP’s lawyer, Ogwu Onoja, in which he canvassed that the House of Assembly, Matawalle and others were planning to impeach Gusau who refused to defect to APC.
Despite the order of the court, Gusau was impeached by the House of Assembly after receiving the report of the investigative panel constituted by the chief judge, Kulu Aliyu.
The plaintiffs, however, filed a motion on notice seeking an order restoring the status quo of Gusau wholly to the position as at July 8, 2021 when this suit was commenced, irrespective of the merits as might be ultimately decided in the case, and in particular setting aside all the steps taken by the defendants in furtherance of the purported impeachment proceedings.
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