I am legally disabled to set up panel to investigate allegations against Governor Fubara, says chief judge
The Chief Judge of Rivers State, Simeon Chibuzor-Amadi, has declined a request from the Rivers State House of Assembly to set up a seven-member panel to investigate allegations of gross misconduct against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngọzi Odu.
Penpushing reports that the Chief Judge in a letter dated January 20, 2026 and addressed to the Speaker of the House, Rt Hon Martins Amaewhule cited two interim injunctions by a state high court as reason for his decision.
The Chief Judge in the letter emphasised that the existence of the two court injunctions and the pending appeal by the Speaker had legally disabled him, explaining that the speaker’ appeal against the court orders at the Court of Appeal stressing that another layer to the ongoing legal proceedings surrounding the allegations.
“In view of the foregoing, my hand is fettered, as there are subsisting interim orders of injunction and appeal against the said orders. I am therefore legally disabled at this point from exercising my duties under Section 188(5) of the Constitution in the instant,” he said.
Penpushing further reports that he emphasised that constitutionalism and the rule of law require all authorities to obey subsisting court orders, irrespective of their perception of the orders’ validity.
The judge referenced a similar case in 2007 in which the chief judge of Kwara State was “roundly condemned in strong language” for ignoring a restraining court order when setting up an investigative panel, a decision later voided by the Court of Appeal.
Penpushing also reports that Chibuzor-Amadi appealed to the lawmakers to recognise the legal constraints surrounding the matter, and urged them to be “magnanimous enough to appreciate the legal position of the matter.”
“In view of the foregoing, my hand is fettered, as there are subsisting interim orders of injunction and appeal against the said orders. I am therefore legally disabled at this point from exercising my duties under Section 188(5) of the Constitution in the instant,” he said.
Penpushing also reports that it would be recalled that the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt issued two interim injunctions restraining the state assembly and the chief judge from going ahead with its impeachment proceedings against Fubara and his deputy Prof (Mrs) Odu
The governor and his deputy had filed two separate suits on the matter upon which the court issued two separate injunctions against the Rivers State Assembly and the Chief Judge.
Penpushing reports that Rivers State House of Assembly, on January, 8, 2026 began impeachment proceedings against the Governor and his Deputy over alleged gross misconduct, and the latest was the third attempt by the lawmakers to impeach the governor since he was elected into office in 2023.
The impeachment move came shortly after the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, accused the governor of reneging on the terms of a peace deal brokered by President Bola Tinubu in June last year.
Penpushing further reports that the assembly on January 15, 2026 failed to reconvene despite earlier shifting its sitting until the day, and this fuelled speculations the lawmakers might drop the impeachment move.
The lawmakers, however, on January 16, 2026, announced that the impeachment process would go on as earlier planned, and subsequently requested the chief judge to set up a panel to investigate the allegations of gross misconduct against the governor and his deputy.
Penpushing also reports that hours later, the Rivers high court issued the order which restrained the assembly and the chief judge from proceeding with the impeachment process against Rivers state governor and his deputy.
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