Impeachment saga: Rivers chief judge turns down assembly’s request to set up panel to probe Fubara

Simeon Amadi, the chief judge of Rivers State, has declined the Rivers State House of Assembly’s request to set up a judicial panel to investigate Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu, citing a court order that bars him from acting on impeachment matters.

In a letter dated January 20, 2026, addressed to Speaker Martin Amaewhule, Amadi said his office had been served with two interim court orders on January 16, arising from separate suits filed by Fubara and Odu.

The orders, he said, expressly restrained him from receiving, considering or acting on any request, resolution or document relating to impeachment proceedings against the governor and deputy governor.

Amadi further noted that Amaewhule had filed an appeal against the interim orders at the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt, with notices of appeal served on January 19 and 20. He said the doctrine of “lis pendens” required all parties, including the court, to await the outcome of the appeal before taking further action.

“By the doctrine of ‘lis pendens’, parties and the court have to await the outcome of the appeal,” Amadi wrote. “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.”

The chief judge urged the assembly to appreciate the legal position and to allow due process to run its course.

The development comes after the Rivers assembly, on January 8, commenced impeachment proceedings against Fubara and the deputy governor, following allegations of gross misconduct. On January 16, the lawmakers voted in favour of a motion requesting the chief judge to probe the allegations.

The impeachment charges include alleged budgetary impropriety, failure to present the 2026 appropriation bill to the assembly, unauthorised expenditure of public funds, withholding of statutory allocations to the legislature, and other acts deemed to constitute gross misconduct.

However, the process hit a legal snag when a High Court in Port Harcourt issued an interim order restraining the chief judge from acting on impeachment notices against the governor and his deputy.

The order, issued by Judge Florence Fiberesima, barred the chief judge from “receiving, forwarding, considering, or acting on any request, resolution, or articles of impeachment” submitted by members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.