The determination of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly to sack Hon. Alice Tangi Allen as the Executive Chairman of Sagbama Local Government Council took a dramatic turn yesterday when the Bayelsa State House of Assembly defied a subsisting court order and summoned the Council boss to appear before it unfailingly on Tuesday, August 18.
Justice D.E. Adokeme, sitting as vacation judge of the Yenagoa Judicial Division of the Bayelsa High Court, had on August 10, 2026, in an ex parte motion brought before him by Mrs. Allen, ordered that all parties “maintain the status quo, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed contemporaneously with this application”.
The order was made in connection to Hon. Allen’s suit against the Government of Bayelsa State, the Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, the Sagbama Legislative Council, the Leader of the Council and the Attorney-General of Bayelsa, all of whom were listed as 1st – 6th defendants.
Although all the defendants have been served all the orders and proceedings, including those who were served through substituted means, via the Attorney-General of the State, the BYHA appears hell-bent on dragging the Chairman before it.
The case which is billed for expedited hearing is scheduled for August 20, 2026, a date which the State Assembly now seems poised to circumvent with its 18th August date.
Part of the allegations against Hon. Allen is said to be that she spent some Council funds without proper approvals and was yet to send in her budget for the year. There were also unfounded allegations that she used Council money to fund the activities of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
Incidentally, while Hon Allen is a long standing ally of NDC National Leader Sen. Henry Seriake Dickson, she has refused to join NDC, staying put in the PDP, on which platform she was elected Chairman.
However, many political observers in the State believe that Hon. Allen’s offence might be that she refused to join Governor Douye Diri and his loyalists to decamp to the All Progressives Alliance, APC . This might be the real reason the hawks in the State want her impeached or forced to resign.
Hon. Allen’s lawyer, Micheal Jonthan Numa, SAN, in a letter to the Bayelsa State Assembly, and served on all six defendants, said that his client cannot honour the House’s summon, not because the House does not have the power to summon her, but because appearing before the House would amount to disobedience of the court order, even though the House’s summon already amounts to a defiance of of that same order.
Numa’s letter was served on the Assembly today 17 August 2026, and copied to the State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice with a certified true copy of the order of the High Court of Bayelsa State made on 10 August 2026. Other courts documents attached to the letter included writ of summons, and accompanying originating processes.
Part of Numa’s letter read, “We therefore respectfully urge tge Honourable House to be pleased to stand down the invitation of 18 August 2026 and to stay further steps on this subject matter pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice fixed for 20 August 2026 and thereafter, the substantive suit.
“Our client undertakes without reservation to appear before the Honourable House upon being duly invited, once the court has pronounced on the pending applications, and she remains willing at anytime to attend on any matter falling outside the subject matter of the suit”.
Mrs. Allen is reportedly outside Bayelsa State on medical reasons.