FIVE people who have won elections into the Anambra State House of Assembly have petitioned the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and Chairman of the National Judicial Commission (NJC), Justice Dahiru Musdapher, over alleged refusal of Justice G. K. Olotu of a Federal High Court, Abuja, to vacate an ex-parte order she issued, which has prevented them from being sworn in as members of the House.The petitioners: Vivian Clem Akpamgbo-Okadigbo, Obinna Emenaka, Paulinus Onyeka, Rebecca Udorji and John Olibie, members-elect for Oyi, Anambra-East, Ekwusigo, Awka-North and Dunukofia state constituencies respectively, in a joint petition made available to The Guardian yesterday, stated that an ex-parte order made by Justice Olotu in Abuja division of the court in a suit has prevented them from being sworn in by the Clerk of the Assembly to represent their constituencies four months after the Assembly was inaugurated.The petitioners described the action of the judge as a disregard of the fact that they had been declared winners of the House of Assembly election in their various constituencies and were issued certificate of return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).While alleging that the judge has frustrated all their efforts to ensure that the order was vacated, they contended that the ex-parte order was issued not minding the fact that they were no parties to the suit on which judgment the order was predicated.The lawmakers-elect in the petition alleged bias on the part of the judge on the ground that she refused to attend to the suit with the same speed with which she gave the ex-parte order. They, therefore, called on the NJC boss to use his good office to ensure that they get justice so that they can be sworn in to represent their constituencies, which have not been in the Assembly in the past four months.One of the petitioners, Emenaka said the order was predicated on judgment in a suit on which they did not constitute a party.His words: 'There was a judgment in which we were not joined as a party from a court. The Federal High Court in Abuja granted an order restraining the Clerk of the House from swearing us in, predicating it on the judgment in a suit in which I was never joined as party. This I see as injustice and abuse of court process'.According to him, 'we applied for vacation of the order on the ground that it was an ex-parte order and they say anything ex-parte has a life-span of 14 days. That ex-parte order was given on June 9, 2011, but was actually served on the Clerk of the Assembly on the June 13, the swearing in day, which retrained the Clerk from swearing me in.'After 14 days, our lawyers made an attempt to ensure the court vacate that order on the ground that it had elapsed by question of time and that it can no longer subsist. It was still not vacated.'The problem is that this order we are talking about was predicated on a judgment in a suit in which we were never joined as a party'.Emenaka said the irony of the case is that the judge who gave the judgment on which Justice Olotu based her ex-parte order raised an order restraining those involved in that judgment from acting on the verdict pending the determination of the appeal.
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