{"id":92420,"date":"2022-03-03T13:35:42","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T12:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=92420"},"modified":"2022-03-03T13:35:42","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T12:35:42","slug":"melodrama-court-restates-odefa-as-ebonyi-deputy-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/other-news\/melodrama-court-restates-odefa-as-ebonyi-deputy-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Melodrama: Court restates Odefa as Ebonyi Deputy Speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"m#msg-f:1726274114548958621\" class=\"mail-message expanded\">\n<div class=\"mail-message-header spacer\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, yesterday, reinstated Mr Odefa Obasi Odefa as the Deputy Speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly.<\/div>\n<div class=\"mail-message-content collapsible zoom-normal mail-show-images \" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div class=\"clear\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\nThe Court, in suit No: FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/223\/2022, also restored the seats of Odefa and two other Lawmakers, Ngozi Ezuilo representing Afikpo North East and Oliver Osi, representing Ivo State constituency.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\nThe court order followed a motion ex parte dated 24th February, 2022 and\u00a0 filed by the trio, Hon. Mrs. Ngozi Lilian Ezuiloh, Hon. Oliver O. Osi and Hon. Odefa Obasi Odefa as plaintiffs\u00a0 against the declaration of their seats vacant and removal of Mr Odefa as Deputy Speaker by the State House of Assembly last month.<\/p>\n<p>It further barred the House of Assembly, the Speaker and the Clerk from\u00a0 carrying\u00a0 out\u00a0 any action that will affect the membership status of the three lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p>The House had last month declared the seats of Odefa and the two other Lawmakers vacant.<\/p>\n<p>The Assembly claimed Odefa wrote a letter resigning his membership of the House, an allegation Odefa outrightly denied.<\/p>\n<p>The House also elected Ogbonnia Ikoro as the new Deputy Speaker.<\/p>\n<p>The House said it declared the seats of the two other Lawmakers vacant over their alleged\u00a0 resignation from their party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and defecting to the APC.<\/p>\n<p>The Lawmakers denied resigning their seats.<\/p>\n<p>The three lawmakers therefore headed to the Abuja Division of the High Court to reclaim their seats and position which they\u00a0 said were wrongly taken away from them.<\/p>\n<p>The Ebonyi House of Assembly, the Speaker of the Assembly, the Clerk and Mr Ikoro were joined in the\u00a0 suit\u00a0 as 5th to\u00a0 8th respondents.<\/p>\n<p>Other\u00a0 respondents include\u00a0\u00a0 the Independent National\u00a0 Electoral Commission, INEC, Attorney General of the Federation, Inspector General of Police and the Department of State Services, DSS,\u00a0 as 1st\u00a0 to 4th respondents.<\/p>\n<p>According to the court, the Judge, His\u00a0 Lordship, Hon. Justice I.E. Ekwo, barred the defendants from effecting any change to the status of the trio pending the hearing and final\u00a0 determination of the motion on notice.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Ekwo ordered all parties in the matter to maintain the status quo that hitherto existed before the House took the controversial\u00a0 decisions against\u00a0 the trio last month.<\/p>\n<p>The Judge ordered \u201cAn Interim Order of this Honourable Court restraining the defendants, especially the 5th to 8th defendants, ether by themselves, their servants,\u00a0 privies or otherwise howsoever from taking any other or further steps as it relates to the entire circumstances of this matter and\u00a0 or\u00a0 from disturbing the plaintiffs\u2019 membership of Ebonyi State House of Assembly, pending the hearing\u00a0 and final determination of the motion on notice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn order of this Honourable Court directing parties in this suit to maintain the status quo ante bellum that existed on the 18th day of February 2022 pending the hearing and final\u00a0 determination of the motion on notice already pending before this Honourable Court\u201d, Justice Ekwo further ordered. The case was adjourned to 16th March, 2022 for\u00a0 motion on Notice.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mail-message-footer spacer collapsible\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, yesterday, reinstated Mr Odefa Obasi Odefa as the Deputy Speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly. The Court, in suit No: FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/223\/2022,&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Melodrama: Court restates Odefa as Ebonyi Deputy Speaker - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/other-news\/melodrama-court-restates-odefa-as-ebonyi-deputy-speaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Melodrama: Court restates Odefa as Ebonyi Deputy Speaker - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, yesterday, reinstated Mr Odefa Obasi Odefa as the Deputy Speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly. 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