Rivers Crisis Deepens as Chief Judge Refuses to Set Up Panel Against Governor Fubara, Deputy

Justice Chibuzor Amadi cites binding court orders restraining him from acting on the Rivers Assembly’s request, insisting that the rule of law must prevail despite mounting political tension.

Rivers State’s political crisis escalated on Wednesday after the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Chibuzor Simeon Amadi, declined to constitute a seven-member investigative panel against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his Deputy, Ngozi Ordu.

In a formal letter dated 20 January 2026 and addressed to the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martins Amaewhule, the Chief Judge said he was legally barred from taking such action due to subsisting court orders.

Justice Amadi disclosed that two separate court orders, served on his office on 16 January 2026, expressly restrain him from receiving, processing or acting on any request to set up a panel to probe allegations of gross misconduct against the governor and his deputy.

He stressed that constitutional democracy demands strict obedience to court orders, regardless of personal opinions about their correctness.

“The principle of constitutionalism and the rule of law requires that all authorities and persons obey valid court orders for as long as they remain in force,” the letter stated.

The Chief Judge also pointed to judicial precedents, recalling a similar incident in 2007 involving the Chief Judge of Kwara State. In that case, the Court of Appeal nullified the setting up of an investigative panel after it was established in defiance of a restraining court order, describing the action as unlawful.

Justice Amadi further noted that the Speaker of the Rivers Assembly has already lodged an appeal against the restraining orders at the Court of Appeal, a development that, according to him, further complicates the legal landscape surrounding the matter.

The refusal is the latest twist in the power struggle between the executive and the legislature in Rivers State, a crisis that has drawn national attention and raised fresh concerns about governance, constitutional order and political stability in the oil-rich state.