Court dismisses Aiyedatiwa’s case
Tamarauemi Ebimini
An Akure High Court sitting in the state capital has dismissed a suit instituted by the Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, challenging his impeachment by the state House of Assembly.
In its ruling delivered by Justice Akintan-Osadebay, the court declined jurisdiction, to avoid a conflicting verdict between the Ondo High Court and the Abuja Federal High Court.
The judge ruled that it was a gross abuse of court process to engage in “forum shopping, by instituting the same case in Akure and Abuja High courts.
Aiyedatiwa had approached the court in a suit delineated AK/348/2023 filed on September 25, 2023 to stop the House of Assembly from impeaching him.
The speaker and the clerk of the House were sued as the 3rd to 5th defendants in the suit.The Speaker and the Clerk had filed a motion on notice, through their lawyer, Femi Emodamori, asking the court to dismiss the matter entirely for lack of jurisdiction .
The defendants application was premised on two grounds: that the matter amounted to abuse of court process based on a subsisting similar matter filed at the Abuja division of the Federal High Court by Aiyedatiwa joining the same party and seeking the same relief as the suit filed in Akure.
