Appeal Court Sacks Delta Assembly Deputy Speaker

An Appeal Court sitting in Benin has set aside the position of Kwale High Court on a motion of stay of execution filed by Deputy Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Friday Osanebi, with regards to the authenticity of his parliamentary membership of the state.

The court said the power to grant such an application was not in the coffers of the lower court in Kwale.

By virtue of the Appeal Court ruling, the Deputy Speaker is to vacate his representation of the Ndokwa East Constituency as provided in the Kwale High Court ruling on the 2015 House of Assembly election in the local government in suit between Mr. Ozegbe Lawrence and Osanebi and two others.

However, in a swift move, Osanebi has filed a case before the Supreme Court to review the judgment on stay of execution as passed by the Benin Appeal Court.

Osanebi, in Asaba yesterday, said the court only corrected a process, and there’s no reason for tension as he patiently awaits the judgment of higher court in the case that was earlier decided in Kwale this year.

The deputy speaker, who urged his constituents and teeming supporters to remain calm, said: “I am still the privileged representative of Ndokwa East and Deputy Speaker of the state House of Assembly. The court only corrected a process today (yesterday). Emeka had challenged the competence of the state high court in Kwale in granting a stay of execution filed by our legal team. So, the court in Benin only said no, ‘we are to grant the application.’ That’s all! So, there’s is no cause for alarm.”

He also charged his supporters not to be distracted but remain focused, noting that very soon, the Court of Appeal will make its position known on the earlier judgment in Kwale.