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Appeal Court Reserves Ruling On Bid By Former Speaker Amaewhule, 25 Others To Return To Rivers Assembly

The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt has reserved ruling in the case between former Martin Amaewhule and 24 other members of the Rivers State House of Assembly against Victor Oko-Jumbo and others.

The appellants, said to be loyal to former Governor Nyesom Wike, are challenging the validation of the loss of their seats by a high court, after they decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.

However, a three-man panel of the Appeal Court, made up of Justice Jimi Olukayode Bada, Justice Hama Barka, and Justice Balkisu Aliyu, he appeal court, on Thursday, decided to deliver its ruling on a later date to be communicated to the parties.

Amaewhule and 24 others are challenging the interlocutory injunction of Justice Charles Wali of a State High Court in Port Harcourt, which validated the declaration of their seats in the state House of Assembly vacant, pending the determination of the suit before it.

The High Court had also ordered Amaewhule and others to stop parading themselves as members of the Peoples Democratic Party and Rivers State House of Assembly until the conclusion of the matter before it.

However, Amaewhule and others who were unhappy with the ruling, approached the Court of Appeal for a stay and subsequent invalidation of the ruling.

Recall that when the court sat on June 14, it urged the parties in the appeal to maintain status quo and advised the appellant to serve all the processes on the defendant.

Amaewhule, in the suit, is seeking a stay of the interlocutory orders of the High Court and challenging the jurisdiction of the lower court to entertain the matter.

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