A state High Court sitting in Owerri, the Imo State
Capital, has struck out a motion brought before it by the embattled Imo State
Deputy Governor, Jude Agbaso, to stop his impeachment by the Imo State House of
Assembly.
Delivering the Judgement, Presiding Judge, Justice
Florence Duruohaigwe said the court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain the
case after the Deputy Governor had been given a fair hearing by the Imo State
House of Assembly earlier on.
She also said that it would be unnecessary to grant
the motion, since the applicant was not challenging the impeachment by the
House of Assembly.
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Mr Agbaso had earlier approached the court praying
it to restrain the state house of assembly from proceeding with the impeachment
process which began three weeks ago.
He also prayed the court to restrain the Nigerian
Police Force from harassing him or acting upon the recommendations of the House
of Assembly against him.
The Counsel to the applicant, Patrick Ikweto, told
the court that the respondent infringed on the fundamental human rights of the
Deputy Governor by investigating and indicting him in its report.
He further argued that the House of Assembly ought
not to have dabbled into the investigation of the alleged N458 million contract
scam, because that was a role of the security agencies.
He said that his client was not challenging the
power of the State Assembly on impeachment, but that the process of Impeachment
so far was faulty.
In response to the ruling, Counsel to the
respondent, Akintola Adeniyi, argued that the court had no jurisdiction to
entertain the matter in the first place.
He said the matter was primarily a case of
impeachment, which the House of Assembly is constitutionally empowered to
handle.
Meanwhile, the embattled Deputy Governor is expected
to appear today before the 7-man Panel of Enquiry set-up by the Chief Judge of
Imo State to investigate the allegations of gross misconduct and abuse of
office by the State House of Assembly.
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