By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA—Following a petition accusing him of bias, Justice Evoh Chukwu, yesterday, disqualified himself from handling a fresh suit seeking to stop Hon. Aminu Tambuwal from performing the functions of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
When the ex-parte application which was filed by a member of the House of Representatives from Ogun State, Mr. Isiaq Akinlade came up for hearing yesterday, Justice Chukwu said he decided to wash his hands off the suit in the interest of Justice.
The Judge said his attention had also been drawn to a petition that was written against him by the Speaker, saying though the Chief Judge of the High Court has not asked him to discontinue with the matter, “at this stage I think that the best thing to do is to return the case file to the CJ for reassignment to another judge”, he stated.
Aminu Tambuwal
The Judge had earlier expressed displeasure over media publications (not Vanguard), which he said did not only vilify him, but also accused him of giving favourable judgments to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Akinlade had in his suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/871/2014, applied for a judicial interpretation of an earlier judgment of Justice Chukwu that held that there was no division in the PDP.
It was his contention that in view of the previous verdict of the court, Tambuwal, having defected from the party that sponsored him into the House of Reps, ought to vacate his seat in line with the provision of Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
He insisted that it would be illegal to allow Tambuwal who came into the House on the ticket of the PDP to decamp to the All Progressives Congress, APC, and still retain his seat and position as Speaker of the House.
Cited as respondents in the suit were Tambuwal, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the Federal Government.
Meanwhile, dissatisfied with the competence of Justice Chukwu to maintain objectivity in the determination of the suit, Tambuwal, in a petition dated November 30, prayed the Chief Judge of the High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta to reassign the case to another judge.
Tambuwal argued that since it was the same judge that held that there was no division in the PDP, he said it would be against the tenets of justice to allow him to also preside over the instant suit.
He argued that allowing Justice Chukwu to handle Akinlade’s suit would amount to allowing him to sit on appeal over his own judgement.
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