Rivers crisis: Court threatens anti-Fubara lawmakers with contempt

The Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, has threatened to sentence Speaker Martin Amaewhule and his deputy, Dumle Maol, as well as 27 other lawmakers opposing Governor Siminilayi Fubara, to prison, if they continued to disobey the court’s directives on the crisis rocking the Assembly.

The threat was issued in Form 48 pursuant to an application filed by factional Speaker Ehie Edison drawing the court’s attention to Monday’s sitting by the Amaewhule group.

The court had, on November 7, ordered parties in the dispute not to take any step concerning the subject matter contained in a substantive suit which Ehie filed before it.

But on Monday, the Amaewhule-led lawmakers sat at the Assembly complex under police protection and deliberated on a number of legislative matters.

Edison, who identified himself as the new Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly in the application, accused the former Speaker of invading the Assembly and purportedly leading plenary of the Assembly in violation of the court’s order for the parties to maintain the status quo.

The court entered the Form 48, titled: Notice of Consequences of Disobedience of Order of Court, dated November 22, and signed by the Registrar of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt Judicial Division.

The notice, issued in the case presided over by Justice Phoebe Ayua, warned that the contemnors would be liable to be committed to prison unless they obeyed the order of the court and maintain the status quo.

The judge adjourned till November 27.

The form, which was addressed to Amaewhule and Maol, reads: “Take notice that unless you obey the directions contained in this order, you will be guilty of contempt of court and will be liable to be committed to prison.”

Justice Ayua had issued an order directing all the parties to the Assembly crisis to maintain the status quo and avoid taking any step concerning the subject matter of the suit until the determination of the motion on notice.