An alleged move by the Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu, to influence the impeachment of the Deputy Governor, Ahmed Musa Ibeto, has suffered a setback as the state High Court has restrained the Attorney General of the state, the Chief Judge, the Speaker and six others from initiating any process aimed at impeaching Ibeto.

Justice Aliyu Mayaki, in a ruling on Monday, also restrained the state’s AG, the Chief Judge and seven others as well as their agents from tampering or obstructing the Deputy Governor from discharging his functions. A copy of the ruling was made available in Abuja yesterday.

The ruling was based on an ex-parte application filed by Ibeto, through his lawyer, Mohammed Magaji, SAN, seeking interim injunctions against the nine defendants in a suit he filed, seeking among others, to void the letter of hand-over given the Speaker by the governor to act in his absence and the alleged plot by the governor to impeach him.

Defendants in the suit marked: NSHC/MN/02/2015 include the state’s Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police, Niger State, Director, State Security Service, Niger State, the Speaker, Niger State House of Assembly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Chief Judge, Niger State, the Niger State House of Assembly, the Clerk of the House and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Justice Mayaki, who granted all the six prayers in the ex-parte motion, also restrained the defendants from “tampering, violating, withdrawing the rights and privileges of the plaintiff’s office.”

He specifically restrained the Speaker, the House of Assembly and the Clerk (the 4th,7^th and 8th defendants) from conducting any proceedings in the House’ s chambers with the aim of impeaching the plaintiff.

The judge further restrained the three - the Speaker, the House of Assembly and the Clerk – and their agents “from accepting any nomination of any purported candidate from the Governor of Niger State, for the position of the Deputy Governor of Niger State.”

All the interim orders are to subsist pending the determination of the substantive suit initiated via originating summons.

Ibeto, in a supporting affidavit, stated that Governor Aliyu, having walked him out of the executive council meeting on February 11, had allegedly taken steps to prevent him from function in his capacity as deputy governor.

He said the governor had equally threatened to influence his impeachment.

The deputy governor said his problem with the governor started when he defected to the All Progressives Party (APC) from the PDP.

He stated that unless restrained, the governor, the speaker and the House of Assembly have commenced moves to “unlawfully direct the 6th defendant (the Chief Judge) to constitute a panel to investigate me with the view to removing me from office as the deputy governor.”

Meanwhile, Justice Mayaki has reversed the decision by the Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly to declare vacant, the seat of a member representing Rijau Constituency, Mohammed Nazir Abdullahi.

The judge, who last Monday, granted all the four prayers in a motion ex-parte for interim injunctions filed and argued by Mahmud Magaji (SAN) for Abdullahi, nullified the House of Assembly’s proceedings of February 17, 2015 during which Abdullahi’s seat was “unlawfully declared vacant.

The judge particularly restrained the Speaker and members of the Niger State House of Assembly from taking any action or further step against the plaintiff in his capacity as a member of the House based on a February 17 resolution where the Speaker purported to have declared his seat vacant.

He retained the Speaker, the Clerk, the House of Assembly and the state police commissioner from preventing him from entering the House “to carry out his lawful and constitutional duties as a member of the Niger State House of Assembly.

The orders made interim are to subsist pending the determination of the substantive suit marked: NSHC/MN/01/2015. Named as defendants include the Speaker, the Clerk of the House, the Niger State House of Assembly, the Commissioner of Police, the state’s Attorney General, the INEC and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Abdullahi stated, in a supporting affidavit, that the Speaker had threatened to declare his seat vacant shortly after he defected to the APC from the PDP. He said despite the pendency of a fundamental rights enforcement suit he filed against the Speaker, he (the Speaker) proceeded to declare his seat vacant.

Source: THISDAY