Ebonyi court kicks out Deputy Speaker, Blaise Oji as speaker

 
At the sitting of the court, the presiding judge, Justice Anselm Nwaigwe, held that the im­peachment of the speaker was irregular and could not stand. Nwazunku was impeached by a splinter group of the House last month, paving the way for the Deputy Speaker, Blaise Oji, to be declared speaker. Ever since, the House has not returned to normal business.

Delivering judgment yester­day over the disputed impeach­ment, the court held that the move was flawed and inconsis­tent and could not stand.
The decision, therefore, re­turned the former speaker, a de­velopment that created a fresh political tension in the state.
Prior to the ruling, support­ers of the state Governor, Chief Martin Elechi, had gathered early hours of yesterday at the court premises protesting against the sitting, which they alleged was a plot to return Nwazunku and pave the way for the House to impeach El­echi.
The supporters’ fears were allegedly confirmed when po­lice and other armed security men forcefully dispersed them.
It was gathered that the inter­vention of the security agents almost snowballed into vio­lence.
One of the protesters at the court, Ignatius Onele, told Dai­ly Sun that the situation would have degenerated into crisis un­til they decided to beat a retreat.
He said they were against the court decision because they foresaw a situation where few legislators loyal to the opposi­tion group would impeach the governor and Nwazunku, who had already picked the PDP House of Representatives ticket for next year’s election to be­come the acting governor after the deputy governor, would have resigned.