Rivers Lawmakers To Amend High Court Law

The Rivers State House of
Assembly says it is in a hurry to amend, the Rivers State High Court law of 2014 in order to give Rivers people a new lease of life.
The Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee on Judiciary, Hon Stanley Marshall Uwom,who stated this shortly after a public hearing explained that the Assembly was ready to bring back sanity and improve the lives of Rivers people.
According to him, “We are in a hurry to bring back sanity, we are in a hurry to improve the lives of Rivers people, we will not let Rivers people remain in darkness. That is the responsibility of this 8th Assembly. Interested matters were left in abeyance, women who lost their husbands got themselves thrown out of their houses because they could not access monies that belong to their husbands, innocent Nigerians were thrown into prison and criminals were left unfettered to roam the streets.
“We cannot as a responsible Assembly, representing the good people of Rivers State, watch this in silence and see insanity prevail”.
However, stakeholders in the Rivers State judiciary, including the Chief Registrar and the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Justice, have denied making inputs into the High Court Law amendment made by the 7th Assembly,
The law which is being repealed was alleged by legislature to have contributed to the judiciary crisis in the state.
The Chief Registrar, Mr. Kobamoye Leonard Adoki, and Solicitor-General, Mr. Rufus Nkere-Owaji Godwins, made the denial at a public hearing organised by the  state Assembly on the Rivers State High Court (Amendment No 2)Bill 2015, in Port Harcourt.
They said they only saw a copy of the amended law at the public hearing.
In his presentation, Godwins said as administrative head of the Ministry of Justice in the State, he was not invited to make any input to the amendment.
He decried the situation where the amendment was made at the Ministry of Justice hall without his knowledge, saying the new law is unconstitutional by virtue of Section 271, sub-section 3 of the 1999 Constitution (amended).
He said: “The amendment has through the back door, elevated the Chief Registrar to the position of a chief judge in event of a vacancy. That cannot be the intention of the makers of our constitution. It will be to the internal credit of this newly elected assembly to take the historic opportunity without any further ado to expunge this anti-people legislation from the statute books of the Rivers State House of Assembly”.