A Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, yesterday, barred the Federal Government from releasing further monthly allocations to Rivers State.
The court, in a judgment by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, specifically restrained the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, from allowing the state to draw funds from the Consolidated Revenue Account.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State government said it saw the judgment of the Abuja court, stopping the release of the local government allocations, as an already planned deal coming the way it did.
This came, as former vice president Atiku Abubakar cautioned Nigeria’s Judiciary against setting Rivers State on fire, in the wake of the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordering the CBN to halt all payments to the state.
Also, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, has said that the criminalisation of Rivers State was not the legitimate duty of Nigeria’s Judicial system.
The judgment followed a suit by the Martins Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Recall that Amaewhule and 25 other members of the state Assembly defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the party that brought them to power, to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Defendants in the matter include the CBN, Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc and the Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF.
Others are Governor Siminalayi Fubara, the Accountant-General of Rivers; Rivers Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, Chief Judge of Rivers, Justice S. Amadi; Chairman of RSIEC, Justice Adolphus Enebeli (retd) and the Government of Rivers State.
The plaintiffs had approached the court, praying it to withhold all federal monthly allocations meant for Rivers State.
They predicated their case on the ground that Governor Fubara had yet to comply with the court order that directed him to represent the 2024 Appropriation Bill to the Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
According to the plaintiffs, the high court had in a judgment by Justice James Omotosho, recognised Amaewhule as the authentic Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
They noted that the court invalidated the 2024 budget proposal that was presented before the four-member faction of the Assembly, led by Victor Oko-Jumbo.
The Amaewhule-led members of the Rivers State Assembly added that the Court of Appeal upheld the high court decision that was in their favour.
They alleged that Governor Fubara had continued to make unauthorized withdrawals from the consolidated revenue funds of Rivers state, in breach of section 120 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
We saw it coming, Rivers govt
State Commissioner for Information, Joe Johnson, while reacting, yesterday, said: “When the trial judge refused 23 council chairmen’s application to join the suit, refused the state to change their lawyer and refused our objection challenging jurisdiction of the Federal High Court,’ what did you expect?
“Meanwhile, the judgment has already been appealed and I believe that the Court of Appeal will upturn the judgment. We are not panicked and there is no cause for alarm,” Johnson said.
Atiku in a statement, yesterday, by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, wondered why Justice Abdulmalik issued the order when it was public knowledge that Rivers State had already challenged the Court of Appeal’s judgment on the legality of Rivers State’s 2024 budget.
Atiku said: “Last week, the Court of Appeal declared that the Rivers State budget was illegal because it was passed by an inchoate Assembly. The court ordered Governor Fubara to present the budget afresh.
“The Rivers State Government has already filed a notice of appeal, so that the Supreme Court can hear the matter. However, some elements in the Bola Tinubu administration have procured a judgment intended to undermine the Supreme Court.
“Even before the judgment was delivered, legal luminary, Femi Falana, SAN, had alerted the Chief Justice of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho of possible compromise after house gifts had been presented to judges in Abuja. Sadly, Falana’s warning was ignored,” he said.
He hailed the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, for summoning judges sitting on the Rivers State cases.
