The Federal High Court, Abuja, has refused the stay execution of judgment challenging it’s reinstatement of the impeached speaker and other principal officers of the Kogi State House of Assembly.
In his ruling, the judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba held that his earlier judgment had rendered him `fontus officio’’,
Dimgba also held that granting the relief sought by the applicants would amount to giving justice on one hand and taking it away with the other.
He also held that since the tenure of the lawmakers was time bound, granting the relief sought by the applicants would be aiding them to further waste the time of the plaintiff.
Dimgba said he could not go back to determine the issue of whether the court had jurisdiction or not since it had earlier given judgment.
He said that the only place the applicants could challenge his decision was at the Court of Appeal
On the issue of restraining order, he said that he was not minded to grant such an order.
According to him, between the two sets of parties, the one who has judgment already is the one who is in a better position to stay in that office until the Court of Appeal determines the appeal.
Five lawmakers led by the purported elected speaker, Umar Imam, had asked the court to stay execution of its judgment pending the determination of their appeal.
The others were Friday Sani, Lawal Ahmed, Bello Abdullahi and John Abah.
The impeached Speaker, Momoh Lawal, his deputy and other principal officers of the house had prayed the court to declare their impeachment unconstitutional and to made an order for their restoration.
In his judgment on June 16, Dimgba had ordered the reinstatement of Momoh and others
But, the applicants approached the court with a motion to stay execution of the judgment that reinstated the impeached speaker and other principal officers.
They brought an application asking the court to set aside the judgment because the court had no jurisdiction to deal with the matter.
They also asked the court to grant an interim injunction restraining the principal officers who were restored by the judgment from taking up the fruit of their judgment (NAN)
