Former Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Sam Amadi, has identified due judicial process as Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s strongest safeguard against impeachment in Rivers State.
He specifically stated that the judicial phase of the process remains Fubara’s “saving grace,” as it is likely to shield him from impeachment.
Amadi said the impeachment process hinges largely on the appointment of an investigative panel by the state’s Chief Judge, describing it as the “anchor point” of the entire procedure.
Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Friday, Amadi noted that Governor Fubara’s influence over the judicial process gives him significant leverage, especially given what he described as the weak legal basis of the impeachment allegations.
He argued that the grounds being advanced against the governor do not amount to gross misconduct, stressing that an independent panel made up of individuals of integrity would likely reach the conclusion that Fubara has committed no impeachable offence since the end of emergency rule in the state.
He said: “Now the main anchor for the impeachment procedure is the appointment by the Chief Judge of the state of those investigators. That is really, really the anchor point. If you don’t get there, you are gone.
“So what leverage does he have? Of course, he removed the chief judge, everything has been politics, and I don’t blame him. He knows the game against himself. He appointed a chief judge that we think would be more amenable to him, and again, because also the grounds for his impeachment are not legally overwhelming, let’s to say the least, some would say it’s really trash. But the judge will be the saving point here, because he will appoint people who may not, at least by definition, constitutionally, people of integrity, who are not politically partisan.
“So they will look at the lens and say, has this governor, since the end of emergency rule, done anything that amounts to gross misconduct, even though the Supreme Court has said gross misconduct is in the eye of the beholder. But here this men of integrity would look at the lens and say, what really is the big deal here? What has this governor done that’s suffering six months’ incarceration, if you like, politically, and then coming back hasn’t done anything.
“So this will be the saving… They will say, we don’t think this guy has done anything to warrant impeachment. I think the least saving grace will be the judicial side, where he has more leverage, and whose definitive proclamation by via the investigators who say no guilt. And the law says, as Nikki Tobi rightly put it, he says “they don’t have two options, just one of two proven: not proven. If they say not proven that is dead. If they say proven, then straight to the process of impeachment.” So that, I think, is really where we are here, and that’s a saving grace for him.”
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