Rivers governor drops appeal on 2024 budget case

Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has decided to drop his appeal against the court ruling that declared the state’s 2024 budget illegal. The announcement came from Lere Olayinka, media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, on Monday. Governor Fubara had initially submitted the budget to the House of Assembly led by Edison Ehie in December 2023. However, on October 10, 2024, the Appeal Court in Abuja upheld a Federal High Court ruling from January 22, 2024, which nullified the budget’s passage. The budget dispute started when lawmakers loyal to Wike, led by Martins Amaewhule, challenged the process in court, arguing that it was not properly passed. This legal battle is part of the ongoing political conflict between Wike and his former ally, Fubara, over control of the state’s political structure. In a social media statement on Monday, Olayinka stated that the governor’s decision to withdraw the appeal confirms the court’s position on the matter. Fubara’s team has not yet responded to the development.

Court declines to bar Fubara from spending Rivers funds

Rivers Guber: Court Upholds Gov Fubara's Victory

By Vivian Michael A Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja has refused to shut down all expenditures of Gov. Siminalay Fubara of Rivers pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit field by the Martin Amaewhule-led Rivers Assembly. Justice Emeka Nwite, in a ruling on the motion ex-parte marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/984/24 and moved by Sebastien Hon, SAN, rather ordered the plaintiffs to put all the defendants in the suit on notice. Justice Nwite, however, granted another motion ex-parte by the plaintiffs to serve the 5th to 10th defendants with the originating process and other applications in the matter by substituted means. The judge said: “the leave is hereby granted to the plaintiffs/applicants to serve the 5th to 10th defendants/respondents with tne plaintiffs/applicants’ originating and any other process(es) filed or issued in this suit by substituted means to wit:“By publishing same in the Nation Newspapers.” Justice Nwite adjourned the matter until Aug. 7 for hearing of the motion on notice. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 5th to 10th defendants are Fubara; Accountant-General (A-G) of Rivers; Rivers Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC); Chief Judge (CJ) of Rivers, Hon. Justice S.C. Amadi; Chairman of RSIEC, Hon. Justice Adolphus Enebeli (rtd.) and Government of Rivers State respectively. The Rivers State House of Assembly and Right Honourable Martin Amaewhule (1st and 2nd plaintiffs) had, through their lead counsel, Joseph Daudu, SAN, filed the suit dated July 14 but filed July 15. They had sued the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) as 1st to 4th defendants respectively. Also joined in the suit are Fubara, Rivers A-G, RSIEC, Rivers CJ, Chairman of RSIEC and Rivers government as 5th to 10 defendants. In the motion on notice brought pursuant to Order 28 Rules 1 and 2; Order 27 Rules 5; Order 28 Rule 1(2) of FHC Civil Procedure Rules 2009 and under the inherent jurisdiction of the court, the plaintiffs sought two orders. They sought an order of Interlocutory Injunction restraining the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th defendants from honouring any request, command, order or mandate or any banking or other instrument, financial instruction or other instructions issued by the 5th defendant on his instruction or at his instance or deriving from the 5th defendant’s authority or in any manner, fund or revenue of Rivers State or Rivers State Government in the custody of the said the defendants, or held by the said defendants for the benefit of Rivers State or Rivers State Government or in any NAN reports that the two rulings, which were delivered on July 17 in the judge’s chamber, were obtained on Sunday in Abuja by NAN. The Martin Amaewhule-led Rivers Assembly had, on July 15, suspended all expenditures of Rivers Governor Siminalayi Fubara until he re-presents his budget before the house. The lawmakers gave the governor a seven-day ultimatum to re-present his budget, which they said had expired. Rivers House Leader, Major Jack, moved the motion to bring up a resolution alerting the house of the governor’s seven-day deadline for presenting the 2024 budget to the house. Following consideration, the assembly decided to shut down the Rivers State Consolidated Revenue Account, prohibiting any expenditure by Gov. Fubara’s administration.

What I told Tinubu about Wike, Fubara fight – Edwin Clark

Elder statesman Edwin Clark said he has advised President Bola Tinubu to give Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State a free hand to run his state’s affairs. The Ijaw national leader said this while weighing in on the crisis between Fubara and Tinubu’s appointee, Nyesom Wike, which has engulfed the oil-rich state in the past few months. The crisis has polarised the Rivers State House of Assembly, while many members of Wike’s camp previously appointed by Fubara have quit. “I have advised Mr President (Tinubu) again that he should leave Fubara alone to run his government, Wike should concentrate on his job in Abuja. “Once that is done, there will be peace and stability in the state. But if they do anything contrary and there is no peace, it will affect the economy of the country,” Clark told The Punch. The 97-year-old said elder statesmen like himself have been unable to mediate between Wike and Fubara because of the former’s insistence on controlling the political structure of the state. “How do you bring them together? One man says I have divorced. But you are my house help. There is no way. You are my son. There is no way any outsider can accept him. “This is because Wike does not see anything wrong with him. He believes that he is still controlling the structures in Rivers State whereas those structures have been there from governor to governor. “They don’t belong to one person. Wike was not yet born when Rivers was created,” he said. Clark castigated the Caretaker Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tony Okocha for calling on the president to declare a state of emergency in the state over the crisis. “Concerning the call for a declaration of a state emergency, I can tell you that (Tony)nOkocha doesn’t know what he is doing. Who is he to call for that? He was only fortunate to be put there because the existing Rivers APC executives were dissolved in the first place. He knows me very well. “Was he not the chief of staff to (Rotimi) Amaechi when he was governor? They were in the APC together. Wike later took seven of them to see (Dr Abdullahi) Ganduje in Abuja. They formed a (caretaker) committee, and today, he is the chairman of Rivers State APC. So, it was obvious from the start that Okocha didn’t want to be with Amaechi again. “These are the people scattering Rivers State,” he said.

Rivers Crisis: Oko-Jumbo- led Assembly insists on challenging A’Court decision

The Oko-Jumbo-led Rivers Assembly has insisted that it will challenge the decision of the Appeal Court on the assembly crisis. The Court of Appeal in Abuja had on Thursday nullified the removal of Martin Amaewhule and 24 others from the Rivers State House of Assembly by the Rivers State High Court. But the speaker of the pro-Fubara lawmakers Victor Oko-Jumbo has maintained that he and his members believed that the Appeal Court erred in its decision. He was seen saying this in a video shared by Channels TV via their X handle on Saturday, July 6. He said: “We strongly believe that the Court of Appeal was in error when it held that the Rivers State High Court lacked the Jurisdiction to hear and determine SUIT NO PHC/1512/CS/2024. “Accordingly, we have instructed our lawyers and they have filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Nigeria Challenging the Judgement of the Court of Appeal delivered on the 4th Day of July 2024.”

Rivers Crisis: Appeal Court returns speaker Amaewhule, 24 house members, sacks Oko-Jumbo

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, Thursday, dismissed an order of the Rivers State High Court, which sacked the Martin Amaewhule’s led 24 Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. The lower court had, in its judgement, restricted led the lawmakers from parading themselves as members of the Assembly. The appellate court made the order following an appeal by Amaewhule and the 24 Assembly members, challenging the interlocutory decision of the Rivers State High Court, delivered on May 10, 2024. The 3-man panel member of the court led by Justice Jimi Olukayode-Bada held that Amaewhule’s appeal was “meritorious” and therefore allowed the same. Consequently, the suit by Victor Oko-Jumbo at the Rivers State High Court is hereby struck out. The panel held that Amaewhule and the 24 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly should revert to their positions before the restraining order was made. The Court of Appeal held that the only court vested with jurisdiction to hear the suit filed by Oko-jumbo is the Federal High Court and not the State High Court. Therefore, the panel unanimously reasoned that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit filed by the 1st to 3rd respindents. Consequently, it was the contention of the appellate court that the ex parte order which had restrained Amaewhule and the 24 Assembly members, having been made without jurisdiction, “is null and void and of no effect whatsoever”. “Trial court lacks the jurisdiction to hear and determine the suit of the respindents, the court said. The panel held that in granting an ex parte order, there must be an existence of “real urgency and not self-induced urgency.” More so, the Court of Appeal said the trial court should have heard the position of the appellant in the interest of fair hearing since there was no urgency in making the interlocutory injunction.