As the cold war between Edo Gov Godwin Obaseki and his godfather and APC chairman Adam Oshiomhole escalates into hot war, the governor made a move to arrest him following the recommendation of a Judicial Commission of Inquiry indicting the former governor.
But a federal high court in Abuja on Monday issued an interim order restraining the Obaseki and others from acting on the report of the commission which probed the spending on the Edo Specialist Hospital constructed when Oshiomhole was governor.
He was indicted in the report submitted in May for violating the state’s procurement law.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed, in a ruling on an ex parte application filed on May 27, 2020 by Oshiomhole’s lawyer West Idahosa, asked parties not to take any step including any plan to arrest the APC chairman.
He ordered all the respondents to the suit—the state government, the governor, the Inspector-General of Police, and the Department of State Services—not to take any action until the court decides whether or not it has jurisdiction to entertain suit.
Although it was an ex-parte suit, the state government eventually butted into the court through its counsel Alex Ejeiseme to object to the suit on Monday, claiming the court lacked jurisdiction.
Justice Mohammed, however, listened to both lawyers, and decided on an interim order restraining the prosecution of the applicant.
He directed Idahosa to serve all the respondents the processes he had filed in the case—within 48 hours.
The matter was adjourned till June.
Obaseki and his predecessor have been fighting a supremacy war for over a year now. Efforts by the ir party leadership to make peace have all gone to waste.
And has the September guber election draws nears, each of the two ha been devising ways to neutralise the others–politically.