Court orders reinstatement of impeached Kogi Speaker

Reprieve has come the way of Hon. Jimoh Dada who was impeached as Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, as a Federal High Court in Abuja has nullified his impeachment.

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, ordered that Jimoh and the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Aliyu Akuh as well as seven other Principal Officers of the Assembly who were equally impeached be reinstated as the process that led to their purported impeachment on February 16, 2016, was unconstitutional and illegal.

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The court held that “The continued sitting and conduct of the affairs of the Kogi State House of Assembly by the 1st – 5th defendants after the purported removal of the 1st plaintiff and other principal officers of the House and purported installation of themselves as principal officers of the Kogi State House of Assembly on the 16th day of February, 2016, is illegal having regard to section 96(1) of the Constitution and Rule 5(1)”.

Justice Dimgba also barred the security agencies including the Inspector General of Police, Director General of the State Security Service, Commandant of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps, who were 7th to 8th defendants in the suit, “from further barricading the complex of the House of Assembly and preventing the plaintiffs from accessing the hallowed chambers of the Kogi State House of Assembly to conduct their legal and legitimate duties as legislators validly elected to represent their various constituencies”.

The court however refused to award general damages in the sum of N500million, sought by the plaintiffs.

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