Court Nullifies The Purported Emergence Of Nse Ntuen As Speaker Of The Akwa Ibom State House Of Assembly | Nairalaw

*Says it was Disrespectful of the Constitution for him to
Have Paraded Himself as Speaker when the tenure of Onofiok Luke was
still intact

A High Court sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State and presided over
by Justice Ekaette Obot has today, the 18th day of April, 2019
nullified the purported emergence of Nse Ntuen as the Speaker of
the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.

In a judgment delivered at about 11 am, the Judge ruled that
there is no room in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 1999 for the emergence of more than one Speaker of a State
House of Assembly at a time.

The Judge also ruled that the purported emergence of Nse Ntuen
as Speaker at a purported sitting of only three persons, namely
Hon. Nse Ntuen, Hon. Otobong Ndem and Hon. Idongesit Ituen, which
sitting was carried out after plenary had been officially closed
for the day and which sitting was without the presence of the 21
remaining Members of the State House and without the Clerk and also
without a Mace, Gavel and other symbols of parliamentary authority
on Monday the 19th day of November, 2018 is unconstitutional,
unlawful, invalid, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.

The court went on to hold that it is unlawful and disrespectful
of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for Hon. Nse
Ntuen or any other person whatsoever to parade himself as the
Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly when the tenure of
Rt. Hon. (Barr) Onofiok Luke who was unanimously elected as Speaker
of the said House at a plenary held in 2015 with all the elected
Members in attendance is still intact and subsisting in the eyes of
the law. It held further that his purported emergence was unusual,
unconventional, unconstitutional, null and void.

The court then made an order restraining Hon. Nse Ntuen from
continuing to parade himself as Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State
House of Assembly.

Before ruling on the substantive matter, the Judge ruled on the
notice of preliminary objection which was filed by Mr. Uyo-Obong
Jumbo, counsel for Nse Ntuen and three others. In the objection,
counsel for the defendants challenged the jurisdiction of the court
to entertain the matter. He argued that it is only the Federal High
Court that has exclusive jurisdiction to hear matters connected to
the House of Assembly of a State. In her ruling, the judge
dismissed the objection for lacking in merit and awarded cost of
N200,000.00 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) against the
defendants.

It would be recalled that in the wake of the crisis in the Akwa
Ibom State House of Assembly in December, 2018 Hon. Otobong Ndem
and Hon. Idongesit Ituen held a parallel plenary and elected Hon.
Nse Ntuen as the new Speaker. Dissatisfied with the action, Hon.
Onofiok Luke approached the Akwa Ibom State High Court Suit No.
HU/382/2018. An ex parte order was earlier granted by the court to
restrain Nse Ntuen from parading himself as Speaker pending the
hearing of the substantive order and today judgment was delivered
on the said substantive matter.

Responding to the judgment of the court, counsel to the Speaker,
Mr. Ekemini Udim thanked the court for a well-researched judgment
which he said will go a long way to enrich Nigeria’s jurisprudence.
Also in the speaker’s legal team were, Ini Ememobng, Toyo Jimmy and
Beulah Udechukwu.