A High Court sitting in Abakaliki, Eb­onyi State capital, yesterday granted an interim injunction re­straining the state House of Assembly and the Speaker from continuing with the impeachment proceedings against Governor Martin Elechi.

The presiding judge, Justice John Igboji, while ruling on the motion ex-parte brought before him by the counsel to the applicant (Governor El­echi), ordered that state House of Assembly should discontin­ue the impeachment proceed­ings without causing the appli­cant to be served with notice of impeachment, pending the determination of the substan­tive application.

Justice Igboji also re­strained the chief judge of the state from constituting a panel of seven persons to investigate the allegation of improprieties levelled against the governor, pending the determination of the substantive application.

He further granted leave to the governor to serve the ap­plication for enforcement of fundamental rights and other processes connected with the suit to the 1st to 7th respon­dents to wit, by the delivery to the office of the clerk of the state Assembly, on the chief judge by the delivery to the office of chief registrar of the High Court, Abakaliki, on the police commissioner and the inspector general of police and on the attorney general and minister of justice of Nigeria by courier dispatch.

The judge, however, ad­journed the substantive matter to Tuesday, March 10, 2015.

Reacting to the injunction, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Elechi, Dr. Onyeka­chi Eni, said Governor Elechi had not been served with the impeachment notice, stressing that “nothing is right unless it is right.”

•Adapted from a Daily Sun report. Photo shows Governor Elechi.