LAGOS, Federal Republic of Nigeria. (Report by Ramon Oladimeji) — The embattled Speaker of the Ekiti state House of Assembly, Adewale Omirin, on Thursday told a Federal High Court in Lagos that he is no longer interested in pursuing a suit he filed to challenge his impeachment on November 20 last year.
Omirin and his deputy, Adetunji Orisalade, had filed the suit numbered FHC/L/CS/1823/14 before Justice Saliu Saidu following their impeachment by seven members of the Ekiti House of Assembly belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party.
The other plaintiffs in the suit, wherein they were challenging the legality of their impeachment, were the 17 other All Progressive Congress lawmakers in the Ekiti House of Assembly.
But in a letter dated April 7, 2015 and addressed to the court, the plaintiffs said they were no longer interested in pursuing the suit which they filed through their lawyer, Mr. Norrison Quakers.
The notice of discontinuance, which came after the lawmakers returned to the state and served an impeachment notice on the state Governor Ayodele Fayose, after fleeing for months, simply read, “Take notice that the plaintiffs doth hereby wholly discontinue Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1823/14 against all the defendants.”
The defendants referred to were Fayose who was listed as the eighth defendant. Others were the seven Peoples Democratic Party lawmakers in the Ekiti Assembly, including the Speaker who took over the affairs of the House following Omirin’s impeachment and his deputy, Dele Olugbemi; and Olayinka Abeni respectively
Also sued were the Commissioner of Police in EKiti; the Inspector General of Police; the Department of State Service as well as the three commissioners cleared by the House under Olugbemi’s speakership: Owoseni Ajayi (Attorney-General), Kayode Eso (Commissioner for Works) and Toyin Ojo (Commissioner for Finance).
The suit had been bogged with a lot of adjournments due to the difficulty to serve the court papers on Fayose and the other defendants since last year that it commenced.
The plaintiffs had been asking the court to invalidate the impeachment of Omirin and Orisalade and restore their paraphernalia of offices and other benefits to them. They also prayed for an order barring Fayose from interring in the affairs of the House and asked the court to invalidate the appointment of the three commissioners ratified under Olugbemi.
But Fayose and others had raised objection, contending that the Federal High Court in Lagos lacked both territorial and subject matter jurisdiction on the case which cause of action emanated from Ekiti State.
it was learnt that the move to withdraw the suit followed the advice by Fayose that having filed a suit challenging their impeachment, Omirin and Orisalade should await the decision of the court before resuming to the house as Speaker and deputy Speaker or serve any impeachment notice on him.
