Court fails to stop Wike’s inauguration

Justice S. M. Shuaibu of the Federal High Court, Owerri, Imo State, has declined jurisdiction over the suit number filed by the Rivers State Government and the All Progressives Congress, APC, to stop the inauguration of the Governor-Elect, Chief Nyesom Wike and his deputy, Dr. Ipalibo Harry Banigo on May 29, 2015.
The details of the court ruling were disclosed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Port Harcourt, in a statement issued by the party’s chairman, Mr. Felix Obuah.
Ruling in the suit filed by the Attorney-General of Rivers State, Boms Wogu and the APC, Justice Shuaibu struck it out for want of jurisdiction.
The PDP said that APC and the state government took the case to Owerri because it knew that the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt was unlikely to grant to their prayers.
Through their counsel, Beluolisa. E. I. Nwofor, SAN, the APC joined the PDP, the Police and the SSS as defendants in the case.
According to the party, “Justice Shuaibu resisted their alleged frivolity, held on to the provisions of the Federal High Court 2011 notice on the venue of filing suits and the territorial jurisdictional limits of the Judicial Divisions of the Federal High Court, enacted by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, pursuant to section 19 of the Federal High Court Act, Port Harcourt, and not Owerri as the place in which the suit ought to have been filed.
“The Honourable Judge so ruled because all the principal claims in the suit were not against their Excellencies: the Governor-elect, Chief Nyesom Wike and the Deputy Governor-elect, Dr Harry Banigo.”
Obuah praised the judiciary for rising up to the occasion as the last hope of the common man.
He added, “Amaechi is essentially a creation of the judiciary, as a court judgment put him in office and has demonstrated only one item of his agenda since he came to power, which is the ridiculing and destruction of the judiciary.”
He noted that the PDP and the Governor-Elect were ready and prepared to meet Amaechi and his millions, anywhere they go to subvert the rule of law.
The Chairman welcomed what he described as sound and unambiguous judgment delivered in Owerri, the Imo State capital, by a Federal High Court, presided over by Hon. Justice S. M. Shuaibu on Tuesday, May 19, 2015 in favour of the Rivers State Governor-elect, Chief Nyesom Wike, over his swearing in ceremony billed for Friday, May 29, 2015.
“The PDP expresses gratitude to the judiciary over the failure of Amaechi and the APC through his Attorney-General, Mr. Worgu Boms, to secure judgment in the matter through the backdoor, which it believes would have truncated the democratic process in the state.”
Obuah said: “The Federal High Court, Owerri judgment clearing way for the inauguration of the PDP government and swearing-in of the Governor-elect Wike on May 29 has further strengthened our hope and conviction that no matter the distractions and destructive tendencies of the out-going Amaechi-led administration in the state, the PDP government under Wike will still succeed.”