{"id":154108,"date":"2025-03-05T23:58:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T22:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/withdraw-summons-on-rsiec-chairman-or-face-court-action-lawyer-dares-rivers-assembly"},"modified":"2025-03-10T23:38:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T22:38:40","slug":"withdraw-summons-on-rsiec-chairman-or-face-court-action-lawyer-dares-rivers-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/withdraw-summons-on-rsiec-chairman-or-face-court-action-lawyer-dares-rivers-assembly","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Withdraw summons on RSIEC chairman or face court action\u2019 \u2014 Lawyer dares Rivers Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The political crisis in Rivers State deepened further on Wednesday as the Martin Amaewhule-led Assembly has been threatened with legal action over summons issued to the chairman of the state electoral commission.<\/p>\n

A lawyer, Kenneth A. Amadi, representing the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, in a pre-action notice, asked the Assembly to withdraw the \u2018illegal\u2019 summons issued to the Chairman of the Rivers State Electoral Commission, RSIEC, Retired Justice Adolphus Enebeli, or face court action.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday, 5th March 2025, the Rivers State House of Assembly had given the RSIEC chairman 48 hours to appear before it over the 5th October 2024 local government election, which it said the electoral commission conducted in defiance of a subsisting court order.<\/p>\n

The Assembly directed the RSIEC chairman to appear before the lawmakers on Friday, 7th March 2025, with all the commissioners of the electoral body.<\/p>\n

The RSIEC chairman was also directed to present relevant documents that empowered him to spend the Commission\u2019s funds \u201cwithout an Appropriation Law from 1st January 2024 to date\u201d.<\/p>\n

The RSIEC chairman was warned that should he fail to honour the summons, the Assembly would issue a warrant of arrest against him, or invoke its powers as enshrined in Section 129 of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the development in a pre-action notice addressed to the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, ALDRAP, through its lawyer, Kenneth Amadi, described the summons as illegal and asked the lawmakers to withdraw it.<\/p>\n

It said the summons violated legal principles and constitutional provisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe write to issue this pre-action notice respectfully requesting you and the Honourable Rivers State House of Assembly to withdraw the 48-hour ultimatum issued against the Chairman of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, directing him to appear before your Honourable Assembly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the principles of fair hearing enshrined in both Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and the case law of El-Rufai vs House of Representatives, National Assembly (2003), at least seven (7) days\u2019 notice would suffice to honour an invitation from any legislature according to the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act, 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake notice that in the event that you and the Honourable Rivers State House of Assembly fail to withdraw the said ultimatum, we intend to take steps to approach a court of law to seek redress,\u201d parts of the pre-action notice read.<\/p>\n

ALDRAP added that it has become necessary to remind the Assembly that Nigeria is a democracy and not a dictatorship where ultimatums are issued without regard to relevant laws.<\/p>\n

The NGO also offered to provide re-orientation training on legislative procedures for members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, at no cost.<\/p>\n

As a result of the \u2018illegal\u2019 summons, the organisation observed that it has become necessary for the lawmakers to be re-acquainted with the scope and limits of the powers of the legislature, as provided by the Nigerian Constitution.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. The political crisis in Rivers State deepened further on Wednesday as the Martin Amaewhule-led Assembly has been threatened with legal action over summons issued to the chairman of the state electoral commission. A lawyer, Kenneth A. Amadi, representing the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, in a pre-action notice, asked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":154107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,14],"tags":[254,3126,3824],"class_list":["post-154108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-nigeria","tag-rivers-assembly","tag-rsiec"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Withdraw summons on RSIEC chairman or face court action\u2019 \u2014 Lawyer dares Rivers Assembly - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The political crisis in Rivers State deepened further on Wednesday as the Martin Amaewhule-led Assembly has been threate ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/withdraw-summons-on-rsiec-chairman-or-face-court-action-lawyer-dares-rivers-assembly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Withdraw summons on RSIEC chairman or face court action\u2019 \u2014 Lawyer dares Rivers Assembly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The political crisis in Rivers State deepened further on Wednesday as the Martin Amaewhule-led Assembly has been threate ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/withdraw-summons-on-rsiec-chairman-or-face-court-action-lawyer-dares-rivers-assembly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-05T22:58:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-10T22:38:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1741206621.268752.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/withdraw-summons-on-rsiec-chairman-or-face-court-action-lawyer-dares-rivers-assembly#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/withdraw-summons-on-rsiec-chairman-or-face-court-action-lawyer-dares-rivers-assembly\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018Withdraw summons on RSIEC chairman or face court action\u2019 \u2014 Lawyer dares Rivers Assembly\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-05T22:58:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-10T22:38:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/withdraw-summons-on-rsiec-chairman-or-face-court-action-lawyer-dares-rivers-assembly\"},\"wordCount\":506,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/withdraw-summons-on-rsiec-chairman-or-face-court-action-lawyer-dares-rivers-assembly#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1741206621.268752.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\",\"Rivers Assembly\",\"RSIEC\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/withdraw-summons-on-rsiec-chairman-or-face-court-action-lawyer-dares-rivers-assembly#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/withdraw-summons-on-rsiec-chairman-or-face-court-action-lawyer-dares-rivers-assembly\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/withdraw-summons-on-rsiec-chairman-or-face-court-action-lawyer-dares-rivers-assembly\",\"name\":\"\u2018Withdraw summons on RSIEC chairman or face court action\u2019 \u2014 Lawyer dares Rivers Assembly - 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