Judge withdraws from fresh anti-Tambuwal suit

Justice Evoh Chukwu of a Federal High Court in Abuja has withdrawn from a suit filed by a Peoples Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives, Abiodun Akinlade, against the Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal.
The development followed the petition sent to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, by  Tambuwal.
Akinlade had in his suit sought an order declaring Tambuwal’s seat vacant on the account of his defection from the PDP, who sponsored his election to the House, to the All Progressives Congress.
The plaintiff had also sought an order directing the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, to take over as the Speaker.
But Tambuwal  had in a petition contested the assignment of the case to Justice Chukwu.
The Speaker asked the Chief Judge to re-assign the case to another judge of the Federal High Court as Justice Chukwu was likely to be bias against him in view of the judge’s previous pronouncement in a related case.
Justice Chukwu announced his withdrawal from the suit on Tuesday.
The judge said he had returned the case file to the Chief Judge in view of Tambuwal’s petition for re-assignment to another judge.
The plaintiff in the suit, FHC/ABJ/CS/871/2014, joined Tambuwal, the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Federal Government as respondents.
Akinlade had sought a “judicial interpretation” of an earlier judgment of Justice Chukwu, where it held that there was no division in the PDP.
The aim of the fresh suit is to justify the PDP’s stance that the defection of Tambuwal from the PDP to the APC on October 28 was “illegal” and in breach of Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
But in Tambuwal’s petition dated November 30, he said he had no confidence in Chukwu to treat the case without “bias,” having given his judgment in 2013 that there was no division in the PDP.
He observed that Chukwu’s judgment had been relied upon for subsequent decisions on defections, such as the one by Justice A.F.A. Ademola of the same Federal High Court, who also declared the December 2013 defection of 37 PDP lawmakers to the APC as illegal.
The speaker had appealed to the chief judge to re-assign Akinlade’s case  to another judge in the spirit of fairness.

Report from Punch