By G9ija
A High Court sitting in Lokoja, Kogi State, has dismissed a motion seeking to join the Clerk of the state House of Assembly as an interested party in the case brought before the court by former Deputy Governor of the state, Simon Achuba.
Achuba filed the suit following his impeachment as deputy governor of the state by the Kogi State House of Assembly, which he considered unlawful.
He is therefore seeking an order of the court declaring the impeachment as illegal and also reinstating him as the rightful deputy governor of the state.
Achuba’s counsel, J. S. Okutepa (SAN) in a 13-page counter affidavit, argued that the court should discountenance the application by the Clerk, describing it as a breach of Court Order 11, Rule Two, sub-section four, and Section 115 sub-section four of the Evidence Act.
Okutepa referred to the Clerk as an interloper, describing his application as a strategy to waste time and sabotage the effort of the claimant. He urged the trial judge to dismiss the application.
Justice John Olorunfemi, while delivering ruling on the matter, said the Clerk has not shown sufficient proof in materials or whatsoever to warrant his being joined in the matter.
He described the attempt by the Clerk to be joined on the matter, as a calculated attempt to serve as a clog in the wheel of progress in the early determination the matter, stressing that the motion could not stand.
The judge ruled that the issues between Achuba and the House and the defendants joined in the matter could be effectively determined without necessarily joining the Clerk.
He dismissed the application as lacking in merit, saying that it failed woefully in its entirety.