Amaechi vs Omehia: S-Court fixes Feb 7 for judgment

The Supreme Court, yesterday, fixed February 7, 2014, to rule on whether the candidate of All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, in Rivers State, Mr. Celestine Omehia, has the legal right to appeal the Federal High Court judgment, which held that Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s tenure ended on May 29, 2011. A five-man panel of the apex court, adjourned for judgment after parties, adopted their briefs of arguments in the consolidated appeals that were filed by Governor Ameachi and a chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, Chief Cyprian Chukwu. Both Ameachi and Chukwu, told the Supreme Court panel headed by Justice M. Muntaka-Coomassie that the Abuja Division of the Appeal Court, erred in law, when it granted Omehia the leave to appeal against the High Court judgment, even though he was not a party in the substantive suit that culminated to the appeal. It will be recalled that Chukwu had in 2010, applied to a Federal High Court in Abuja, asking it to interpret the Supreme Court judgment which in 2007 removed Omehia from office and declared Amaechi as the governor of the state. He asked the court to determine whether governorship election should be held in Rivers during the general electiond of April or later, since Amaechi took the oath of office in October 2007 and not May 29, when all other governors took the oath. The high court held that the Rivers State governorship election should be included in the April 2011 general elections. After the high court decision, Omehia, who was not a party to the high court proceeding, applied to the Court of Appeal to be allowed to join in the matter as an interested party, contending that he was a party in the apex court judgment that was interpreted by the high court, adding he would be adversely affected by the Supreme Court judgment. Meantime, a new twist was added to the case, yesterday, when the PDP, which had initially opposed Omehia’s request to be granted leave to challenge the high court judgment, made a U-turn, and urged the apex court to allow Omehia to seek the sack of Governor Ameachi from office. Counsel to the party, Chief Olusola Oke, argued that under section 243 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the appellate court, rightly granted Omehia the leave to appeal the high court judgment as an interested party, contending “a person, who is affected or likely to be affected by the outcome of any proceeding is an interested party