Rivers Assembly Crisis: Falana Faults Amaewhule Sitting
Mr. Falana said Amaewhule and his colleagues are no longer lawmakers in Rivers State following their defection last year. The lawyer said they can only return as lawmakers if reelected.
“Twenty-five of them, if they claim they are legislators and they pass any bill, anybody can go to court and challenge it, unless they want to have some political solutions and the political solution will mean that those who have left should go back to the electorate for renewal of their mandate. Once you decamp, you automatically lose your seat, you have to go and test your popularity before the electorate,”
Falana said. “Are they saying they are still members of PDP or what?”
Mr. Falana also said the Court of Appeal only ruled on the jurisdiction of the State High Court and not on the status of Martin Amaewhule and others. He said the Appeal Court ruling does not mean they could now carry out their legislative duties as lawmakers. “The Court of Appeal did not say that they remain lawmakers; because they had left their seats, it’s automatic,” Mr. Falana asserted. “The Court of Appeal simply said the State High Court had no jurisdiction in the matter and the case was struck out. The court did not say, ‘You will hereby remain legislators in Rivers State’. No! That Judgement did not say, ‘You are, hereby, restored.’ The Court of Appeal couldn’t have done that because the matter of their membership of the House was not before the Court of Appeal. Unless they can get a Judgment from the Federal High Court, saying you ‘remain Legislators’, they have gone!”
