A legal practitioner, Oba Maduabuchi, has said that the Chief Judge of Rivers State, Simeon Amadi, did not refuse to set up panels to probe Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu.
He said the Chief Judge restrained because of the existence of orders.
Maduabuchi, who made this statement on Friday while fielding questions in an interview on Arise Television, said every of court order whether valid or invalid must be obeyed to the last letter.
He was speaking on the impeachment saga of Governor Fubara and his deputy Ngozi Odu.
The lawyer said: “The first thing we must note is that every order of a court must be obeyed, whether it is valid or invalid. If a magistrate convicts somebody wrongly without jurisdiction, he doesn’t go to his house.
“They will pick him up and take him to the prison. It is from there that people will now go and challenge the order in court, and eventually he will be released and he goes home.
“Whether the order of Fubara is proper or not can be determined unless a higher court makes a pronouncement on it and happily the House of Assembly has gone on appeal.
“The Chief Judge did not refuse but said that he is restrained from setting up panels because of the existence of orders.
“So the question should be; was the Chief Judge right in obeying a court order? If the answer is yes, then he was right. And I don’t see how the answer can be no in the face of the prevailing court order. If I understand there are two of them, he had no options. There were no options except to say, look, I cannot do it unless and until you set aside this order.”
Impeachment: Why Chief Judge didn’t set up panel to probe Fubara – Lawyer, Maduabuchi
