The Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Chibuzor Simeon Amadi, has declined a request to constitute a seven-member panel to investigate allegations of gross misconduct against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Ordu.
In a letter dated January 20, 2026, and addressed to the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Martins Amaewhule, Justice Amadi said he was restrained by two subsisting court orders from receiving, processing or acting on any request to set up such a panel.
According to the Chief Judge, the orders were served on his office on January 16, 2026, and remain valid and binding.
He stressed that the principles of constitutionalism and the rule of law require strict obedience to court orders by all authorities, regardless of any personal or institutional views about their correctness.
Justice Amadi also cited a legal precedent from 2007, when the Chief Judge of Kwara State was criticised for constituting an investigative panel in defiance of a restraining court order. That action, he noted, was later nullified by the Court of Appeal.
He further disclosed that the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly has since filed an appeal against the court orders at the Court of Appeal, adding to the legal complexities surrounding the allegations against the governor and his deputy.
