IMHA, The Denials Of Court Action And The Matters Arising

Almost 48 hours since I broke the news of a clandestine moves by some suspended Imo lawmakers to procure a black market ex parte order against the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and the entire leadership of the 9th Assembly of Imo State House of Assembly over their lawful suspension from the house over Unparliamentary Conducts, there have been some new twists to the whole thing with all the three suspended members whose names appeared on the court documents denying being part or even privy to the processes.
In a suit seen by this writer marked FHC/ABJ/CS/701/2021 having Mr. Okere Kingdom Nnamdi Esq. as the lead counsel sought for an ex parte order from the Honorable Court of reinstatement, payment of 10,000,000 million Naira (Ten million Naira) to each of the suspended law makers, among other prayers but unfortunately for them, they were outrightly declined as the honorable court in their legal wisdom threw out their matter for lack of jurisdiction.

As if that was not enough, when the Abuja Court declined the entertain the matter for lack of jurisdiction, they quickly rushed down to Owerri to continue with their wild goose chase – again, the Honorable court also threw away their case but this time, advised them to follow the due process by properly joining all the parties involved in the matter in the case file for it to be heard.

What then became a twist was when, almost immediately after I broke the news; I received a call from a man who identified himself as Hon. Dominic Eziroha – the Honorable member representing the good people of Oru West state constituency. He denied ever being neither part nor privy of the whole court arrangement and wondered why his name should be included.

“Ambrose Nwaogwugwu my name is Hon. Eziroha. I saw the processes sent to me that they went to court – I want to make it clear that I never asked anybody to go to court for me.” he denied his involvement. 

Still denying his involvement in the matter he continued; “I’m a very senior lawyer in legal practice in Abuja before I won the election and if I want to go to court I will first of all exhaust all the local remedies and seeing how the party and the rest of them will resolve the issues. I am not part of that suit and I never asked anybody to go to court for me.” he declared. 

Like the one he said before wasn’t enough, he re-emphasized; “Please I’m not part of it, this is Eziroha and I’m not part of it and mind you, if I want to go to the court we will brief a lawyer; which lawyer did I brief? 2. If I was to be among my signature would have been there, the whole world knows my signature, is my signature there?

“I joined APC because the Governor is my brother; he is from Oru East and I’m from Oru West and I am trying to exhaust the local remedies by going to meet with the party leadership to tell them to liaise with the house leadership and if there is anywhere there has been a mistake we will resolve it and move the state forward. Why would I just rush to court?” he queried. 

Still on the same day (July 22, 2021), later in the day; I received a disclaimer from Hon. Anyadike Nwosu – the Honorable member representing the good people of Ezinihitte Mbaise state constituency denying his involvement in the suit on a press release personally signed by him.

Then earlier in the morning of today, someone sent a press release and official disclaimer from Hon. Uche Ogbuagu – the Honorable member representing the good people of Ikeduru State Constituency also denying his involvement in a press statement personally signed by him.

The one million dollar now is: who contracted Mr. Kingdom Okere Nnamdi Esq. and other members of his legal team as seen on the court paper to sue the leadership of Imo State House of Assembly to court using the names of these three suspended law makers even without their consent?

One of them, Hon. Eziroha has personally informed me that he is already engaging his lawyers to look into this matter with a view of pressing for charges for involving in a matter he was neither consulted in nor informed of. I don’t know about of others.

At this rate, if they all should make us believe that they were never part of the court arrangement – I think it would be proper for them to approach the court with their lawyers and inform the court they are not part of the suit and have the judge penalize the lawyer who filed the suit without their consents and approvals. 

Then critical minds have started asking questions: could it be true that they are now all denying their involvement in the suit simply because the project flopped?

There are also allegations that there are some opposition leaders who have doled out hundreds of millions of naira for this fruitless venture and having Mr. Okere Kingdom Nnamdi Esq. has confirmed that school of thought.

Okere Kingdom Nnamdi Esq. is a well known apologist of one of the opposition leaders in the state – could it be that they are one who hired him to get involved in this botched adventure?

Like I advised on my previous communication; involving the court will be counterproductive as that would keep them out of the scene for a very long time. Instead of engaging on fruitless legal gymnastics, they should rather explore the local conflict resolution mechanism of their house where the speaker has graciously inaugurated an adhoc committee to hear their complaints and has also promised fair hearing to all the parties involved.

Ambrose Nwaogwugwu.

July 24, 2021.