Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja, has given an order restoring Mr Mahdi Gusau as the deputy governor of Zamfara, following his impeachment by the state House of Assembly on February, 23, 2022, in spite of a subsisting court order.
Delivering judgement, Justice Ekwo also set aside all the steps and actions taken by the House of Assembly, former Governor Bello Matawalle and the state’s chief judge in the purported impeachment of Gusau during the pendency of the suit in court.
Justice Ekwo, who held that the act of the then assembly’s speaker, ex-governor, chief judge and others was an aberration and could not be allowed to stand, described it as null and void and of no effect whatsoever.
He agreed with the plaintiff/applicant that the court must protect its dignity by reprimanding the speaker, governor and chief judge and undoing the steps, acts or proceedings taken in the impeachment while this suit was pending.
The judge also held that, contrary to the argument of counsel to the fifth to 38th defendants, he did not see in any of the judicial authorities cited and relied upon by the lawyer authorisation that any litigant take extrajudicial action when a case was pending in court.
Matawalle, the three state senators, members of the House of Representatives and of the House of Assembly had all defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC) on June 29, 2021.
Following their defection, the PDP and Gusau, the then deputy governor who did not leave the party along with them, had in a suit asked the court to declare their seats vacant, having abandoned the party through which they got into the positions of power.
The plaintiffs had sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), APC, President of the Senate, House of Representatives Speaker, and House of Assembly Speaker as the first to fifth defendants, respectively.
Also joined in the suit were the Zamfara State Governor, Chief Judge, Bello Matawalle, the three senators, House of Representatives members and all members of the state’s House of Assembly as sixth to 38th defendants, respectively.
