Impeachment Saga: Dismiss Aiyedatiwa’s Suit, Ondo Assembly Tells Court

The Ondo Assembly has asked the State High Court to dismiss the suit filed by the Deputy Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, against his impeachment.

The assembly, through its lawyer, Femi Emodamori, in his preliminary objection, said Aiyedatiwa had not been served the notice of allegations of gross misconduct when he rushed to the court.

Recall that Justice O. Akintan-Osadebay had granted Aiyedatiwa permission to paste court processes filed in the suit on the Assembly, Speaker of the Assembly, Olamide Oladiji, and the Clerk, Benjamin Jaiyeola, on the assembly walls and gate after they refused to Ballif of the court entry into the assembly complex to serve the court processes.

The assembly argued that the suit filed by the deputy governor through his counsel, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, was incompetent on the grounds that no court has the jurisdiction to entertain any case trying to stop an impeachment process at the stage when the plaintiff filed the suit.

Emodamori said the appellate court had ruled that no court has jurisdiction to entertain any case of alleged breach of fair hearing when the process has not even reached the stage when the Chief Judge sets up the 7-man impeachment panel to hear the allegations of gross misconduct as required by Section 188 (5) of the constitution.

The assembly’s lawyer also argued that the House had not breached any impeachment procedure stipulated in Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

He furthermore said that Aiyedatiwa filed another suit at the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja against the same persons/parties and seeking the same reliefs, thereby turning the suit at the Ondo State High Court to a multiplicity of action, forum shopping, and gross abuse of judicial process.

According to Emodamori: “Just like Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa SAN wrote the Chief Judge to refrain from setting up an Impeachment Panel on the ground that the case is already in court, we also wrote the Hon. Chief Judge citing relevant laws why he must ignore any purported injunction granted by the Federal High Court Abuja and set up the panel if and whenever his lordship is required to do so, since the purported injunction is illegal by numerous decisions of the apex court in similar situations, and all authorities and persons, including both the Federal and State High Courts, the Hon. Chief Judge himself and the State House of Assembly, must follow and enforce the decisions of the apex courts as stipulated in section 287(1) & (2) of the Constitution.”

The case before Hon. Justice Akintan Osadebay at the Ondo High Court has now been fixed for hearing on 6th October 2023.