Court dismisses case against Western Bahr el Ghazal governor

November 2, 2015 (JUBA) -The Supreme Court in South Sudan has dismissed a case ex-Western Bahr el Ghazal state speaker, Andrea Mayar Acho filed against the governor.

Acho had accused governor Rizik Zakariah Hassan of allegedly mobilising votes against him in the state parliament, which resulted into the former’s impeachment by lawmakers.

The former speaker was impeached by MPs in February this year for continued absentism. Lawmakers also accused Acho of waving the immunity of some MPs without approval from the assembly members, violating South Sudan’s Transitional Constitution.

However, the court dismissed claims that Hassan interfered into state assembly matters.

The former speaker also accused the state governor for reinstating the finance minister Lilian Valentino Rizik who had been dismissed by the state assembly after she turned down summons by legislative assembly members to appear before the state lawmakers.

Agok Makur, the lawyer representing Acho, said seven of the judges ruled against the former assembly speaker while two of them had another opinion on the matter. But Kuol Mabil Kuol, who represented the governor welcomed dismissal of the case by the court.

Meanwhile, the former speaker vowed not to appeal againt the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“The Supreme Court today has rejected my case and is not reasonable, the complaint is not legitimate, so we have lost the case. So this is the highest court, if there was another court of appeal we would have wanted to go there, but we must accept the decision of this court,” a visibly angry Acho told his supporters outside court premises Saturday.