by Ranti Joseph

The state’s High Court has restrained the Attorney General (AG) of the state, the chief judge, the speaker and six others from initiating any process aimed at impeaching the deputy governor of Niger state, Ahmed Musa Ibeto.

Justice Aliyu Mayaki, in a ruling, also restrained the state’s AG, the chief judge and seven others as well as their agents from obstructing the deputy governor from discharging his functions.

The ruling was on an ex-parte application filed by Ibeto, through his lawyer, Mohammed Magaji (SAN) seeking interim injunctions against the nine defendants in a suit he filed, seeking among others, to void the letter of handover given the speaker by the governor to act in his absence and the alleged plot by the governor to impeach him.

Defendants in the suit include the state’s Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police, Niger State, Director, State Security Service, Niger State, the Speaker, Niger State House of Assembly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Chief Judge, Niger State, the Niger State House of Assembly, the Clerk of the House and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Mayaki, who granted all the six players in the ex-parte motion, also restrained the defendants from tempering, violating, withdrawing the rights and privileges of the plaintiff’s office. He specifically restrained the Speaker, the House of Assembly and the Clerk, the 4th, 7th and 8th defendants from conducting any proceedings in the House’s chambers with the aim of impeaching the plaintiff.

The judge further restrained the Speaker, the House of Assembly and the Clerk and their agents from accepting any nomination of any purported candidate from the Governor of Niger State, for the position of the Deputy Governor of Niger State. All the interim orders are to subsist pending the determination of the substantive suit initiated via originating summons.

Janeth J