Ex-Zamfara State Deputy Governor, Mahdi Gusau
Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja, has given an order restoring, Mr Mahdi Gusau as the deputy governor of Zamfara.
This comes after the State House of Assembly impeached him on February 23, 2022, despite an active court injunction. In his ruling, Justice Ekwo threw out all the measures performed by the House of Assembly, former
Governor Bello Matawalle, and the state’s top judge in connection with the alleged impeachment of Gusau while the legal case was pending.
Justice Ekwo ruled that the action taken by the Speaker of the Assembly at the time, the former governor, the chief judge, and others constituted an aberration that could not be upheld and was therefore null and void.
The judge also held that, contrary to the argument of counsel to the fifth to 38th defendants, he did not see in any of the judicial authorities cited and relied upon by the lawyer authorization that any litigant take extrajudicial action when a case was pending in court.
Matawalle, the three state senators, members of the House of Representatives and of the House of Assembly had all defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC) on June 29, 2021.
Following their defection, the PDP and Gusau, the then deputy governor who did not leave the party along with them, had in a suit asked the court to declare their seats vacant, having abandoned the party through which they got into the positions of power.
The plaintiffs had sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), APC, President of the Senate, House of Representatives Speaker, and House of Assembly Speaker as the first to fifth defendants, respectively.