The Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Simeon Amadi, has declined to set up a seven-man panel to investigate allegations of gross misconduct against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Prof. Ngozi Odu, following a request from the State House of Assembly.
Justice Amadi said he was legally restrained from acting on the request due to subsisting interim injunctions issued by a state High Court on January 16, 2026, in separate suits filed by the governor and his deputy.
In a letter dated January 20 and addressed to the Speaker of the House, Martin Amaewhule, the Chief Judge explained that his office had received two separate court orders of interim injunction, which restrain him from receiving, processing, considering, or acting on any impeachment-related request from the Assembly:
“For the avoidance of doubt, paragraph 1 of the said two orders state thus: ‘That an interim injunction is hereby made, restraining the 32nd Defendant, i.e., The Hon. Chief Judge of Rivers State from receiving, forwarding, considering and or howsoever acting on any request, resolution, articles of impeachment or other documents or communication from the 1st-27th and 31st Defendants for the purpose of constituting a panel to investigate the purported allegations of misconduct against the Claimant/Applicant for seven days.”
He emphasised the supremacy of constitutionalism and the rule of law, noting that all authorities must obey court orders until set aside.
He said he would only act on the requests if the court orders were vacated.
The letter cited the Oyigbo High Court orders, which barred him from receiving, processing, or acting on any impeachment documents, emphasising that similar actions by a Chief Judge in Kwara State had previously been nullified by the Court of Appeal.
“Our hand is fettered,” Justice Amadi wrote, “as there are subsisting interim orders of injunction and pending appeals. I am therefore legally disabled at this point from exercising my duties under Section 188(5) of the Constitution.”
