Embattled Ondo State Deputy Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa yesterday asked the state chief judge to ignore the directive by the State House of Assembly to set up a probe panel.
Aiyedatiwa, in a letter addressed to the chief judge by his lawyer, Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa, SAN, noted that it would be contempt of court to proceed with the impeachment process when the parties are involved in two cases in the Federal High Court in Abuja and the State High Court in Akure.
Olu-Adegboruwa said Aiyedatiwa did not respond to the notice sent to his office by the House of Assembly because of the restraining order already issued on the matter by the Federal High Court.
According to him, “Under and by section 287(3) of the Constitution, “all persons and authorities in Nigeria” are to obey and give effect to the orders of the Federal High Court. Our client swore on oath to defend the Constitution and he cannot act against the said Constitution to disobey the valid and subsisting order of the Federal High Court of Nigeria which has halted the removal proceedings.
“Our client has not been personally served with any valid notice of acts of gross misconduct as required by law. Our client is not in receipt of any valid notice of acts of gross misconduct properly issued and bearing the authority of the House of Assembly of Ondo State to which he can respond.”
According to the lawyer, the deputy governor had filed and served two separate applications upon the Ondo State House of Assembly, seeking orders of interlocutory injunction against the removal proceedings and also to stay further proceedings in respect of the invalid notice, which was illegally issued and improperly served.
While noting that the House of Assembly had already joined matters in the court over the issue by filing an appeal against the restraining order, the lawyer noted that it would be against the law to continue with the impeachment process without awaiting the outcome of the case.
He said, “The House of Assembly, having submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court by filing processes in Suit No. AK/348/2023 pending before the High Court in Akure, and also purporting to file a complaint before the National Judicial Council in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1249/2023 before the Federal High Court Abuja, is fully aware of, and cognizant of the authority of the Court over the subject matter of the removal proceedings against our client.”
Olu-Adegboruwa declared that the matter of the planned removal of the deputy governor of Ondo State is now subjudice.
“Parties should follow the due process of law. The House of Assembly itself being a creation of law, seeking to implement the provisions of law, rightly or wrongly, it cannot and should not be allowed to take the law into its own hands by openly disregarding a subsisting order of the court and other court processes duly served upon it,” he said.
