A former Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie, has withdrawn a suit filed at the Rivers State High Court seeking to stop Rt. Hon. Martins Amaewhule-led faction of the House from sitting and carrying out legislative functions.
Ehie had in a suit marked PHC/3638/CS/2023 instituted in a State High Court in Port Harcourt challenged the sittings and the subsequent legislative activities carried out by the 25 lawmakers after the declaration of their seats vacant.
He filed the suit against 25 Rivers Assembly lawmakers in the wake of the political crisis between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.
However, when the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, counsel to the claimants, I. Mac-Barango, Esq. drew the court’s attention to a Notice of Discontinuance filed by the claimants in the matter.
Mac-Barango applied that the court should give effect to the said Notice of Discontinuance based on the notice.
The defendant’s counsels, Ferdinand Orbih (SAN) and Emeka Onyeka, did not object to the application.
Recall that a State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, presided over by Justice M.W. Danagogo had in December, 2023, confirmed Edison Ehie as the authentic Speaker of the State House of Assembly.
The ruling also ordered Martins Amaewhule and Dumle Maol to stop parading themselves as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, respectively.
And consequently, on December 29, Ehie wrote the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) intimating it of his resignation as the Speaker of the State House of Assembly and the lawmaker representing Ahoada Constituency II.
However, the presiding Judge, Hon. Justice F. A. Fiberesima, pursuant to the said application by the claimants’ Counsel, struck out the suit accordingly.
The development, which conformed with the 8-point peace pact brokered in Abuja by President Bola Tinubu, may, however, not affect the fate of some other court cases filed against the defection of the 27 lawmakers, who are loyal to the immediate-past governor of the state and Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike.
