The Rivers House of Assembly has written to Gov. Siminalay Fubara, urging him to re-present the 2025 Appropriation Bill within 48 hours.

The House made this known in a five-point resolution by Mr Martin Amaewhule-led Rivers State House of Assembly at plenary on Monday in Port-Harcourt.

The Amaewhule-led members of the assembly resumed on Monday, following a Supreme Court order on Feb. 28, which stopped federal allocations to Rivers until the state government recognised the Amaewhule-led members of the assembly.

By the Supreme Court directive, the N1.1 trillion appropriation bill presented by a rival Speaker, Victor Oko-Jumbo, to the governor for assent in January was also nullified.

Amaewhule said the governor’s quick response to the resolution was urgent to enable the state tackle impending financial crisis following the halt of statutory federal allocations to the state by the Supreme Court.

The plenary also deliberated on the annulled local government election by the Supreme Court.

Read Also: Fubara prays Appeal Court to vacate order stopping Rivers’ allocations

The letter to the governor read in part;

”That pursuant to the order of the Supreme Court in suit no: SC/CV/1174/2024 for the stoppage of statutory federal allocations to the Rivers government and halting spending from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state, pending the passage of an Appropriation Bill:

”You are requested to present the 2025 appropriation bill to the House in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

“That the House expects you to present the 2025 Appropriation Bill within 48 hours.”

The House, also in its letter, announced readiness to commence the process of amending the Rivers Local Government Law and the State Independent Electoral Commission law to pave way for a fresh local government elections.

The House also drew his attention to the 2023 amendment to the constitution, which prohibited Heads of Local Government Administrators (HLGAs) or individuals other than democratically elected persons to head local government administration.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that Fubara, in response to the nullification of the local government election by the Supreme court, had ordered HLGAs in the 23 local government areas to immediately assume office as administrators of the local councils.

(NAN)

Gov. Siminalayi Fubara, on Friday prayed the Court of Appeal to set-aside the judgment that barred the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from releasing monthly allocations to Rivers .

The governor, through his counsel Yusuf Ali, SAN, prayed a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Hamma Barka, to vacate the high court order which he said was issued in bad faith.

He urged the appellate court to allow his appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/1303/2024, and nullify adverse orders that Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court made against the state in the judgment she delivered on Oct. 30.

Fubara’s plea came on a day the Justice Barka-led panel consolidated five other appeals that arose from the said judgment of the high court.

The appeals were marked as: CA/ABJ/CV/1277/24, CA/ABJ/CV/1196/24, CA/ABJ/CV/1287/24, CA/ABJ/CV/1293/24 and CA/ABJ/CV/1360/2024.

Aside Fubara, other appellants in the matter are the Rivers State Government, the Accountant-General of Rivers State and Zenith Bank Plc.

The lower court had restrained the CBN from further allowing the Rivers government to draw funds from the consolidated revenue account.

The restraining order followed a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/984/24, which was brought before the court by the Martins Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers House of Assembly.

Read Also: EFCC arraigns REA director Garba Bulkwang for alleged N223.4m fraud

Defendants in the matter are the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF).

Others are Fubara, the Accountant-General of Rivers; Rivers Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC; Chief Judge of Rivers, Hon. Justice S.C. Amadi; Chairman of RSIEC, retired Justice Adolphus Enebeli and the Government of Rivers .

The appellants, through their respective counsel, urged the appellate court to allow their appeal.

Similarly, the The Martin Amaewhule-ledfaction of the Rivers State House of Assembly, through their team of lawyers led by Mr. J. B. Daudu, SAN, asked the court to dismiss the appeals and affirm the high court’s judgment.

After all the parties adopted their briefs of argument on , the panel reserved its judgment till a date that would be communicated to the parties.

The factional members of the Rivers Assembly loyal to the immediate past governor of the state and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike, had persuaded the lower court to withhold all federal monthly allocations meant for Rivers state.

They predicated their case on the ground that gov. Fubara refused to comply with an order of court that directed him to represent the 2024 Appropriation Bill of the state, before them.

Gov. Fubara had insisted that the Amaewhule-led group had since ceased to be lawmakers in the state.

He alleged that, having defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which sponsored their election, to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
(NAN)