Lawyer, Oba Maduabuchi, has said that every order of a court must be obeyed, regardless of whether such pronouncements are valid or invalid, in relation to the move by the Rivers State House of Assembly to impeach the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
He said that whether the order concerning Fubara is proper or not can only be determined by a higher court, adding that the House of Assembly has already gone on appeal.
He noted that the Chief Judge did not refuse to set up a panel to probe the governor but merely stated that he was restrained from doing so because of existing court orders.
Speaking on Arise News, the lawyer said: “Now, the first thing we must note is that every order of a court must be obeyed, whether it is valid or invalid. If a magistrate convicts somebody wrongly without jurisdiction, he doesn’t go to his house; they will pick him up and take him to prison.
“It is from there that people will now go and challenge the order in court, and eventually he will be released and go home. Whether the order is proper or not, whether the judge acted outside jurisdiction or not, or whether he acted validly or not, cannot be determined unless a higher court makes a pronouncement on it. Happily, the other side, that is, the House of Assembly, has gone on appeal.
“So the question of whether the CJ was right in saying ‘I cannot’—he didn’t refuse. He said, ‘I’m constrained from setting up this panel because of the existence of other orders.’
“So the question should be: was the CJ right in obeying a court order? If the answer is yes, then he was right.
“And I don’t see how the answer can be no in the face of the prevailing court orders. If I understand correctly, there are two of them. He had no option; there were no options except to say, ‘Look, I cannot do it unless and until…’”
