Rivers Assembly Crisis: Courts Give Conflicting Rulings On Passage Of 2024 Budget
Two courts of coordinate jurisdiction on Monday issued conflicting judgments on the passage of the Rivers State 2024 budget.
While Justice James Omotoso of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja invalidated the presentation and passage of the Rivers 2024 budget by four members of the state House of Assembly led by Ehie Edison, Justice J. O. Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered parties in the suit to maintain the status quo.
Justice James Omotoso having nullified and set aside the budget presentation, ordered Governor Siminalaye Fubara to represent the budget to the legally constituted House of Assembly under the speakership of Martin Amaewhule.
Justice Omotosho, who described the act as an aberration, made the order in a suit by the Rivers State House of Assembly Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the National Assembly.
James Omotoso resolved all the issues in dispute in respect of control over the Rivers State House of Assembly in favour of the former Governor Nyesom Wike’s loyalists.
Consequently, the court restrained Governor Fubara from frustrating the House of Assembly under Amaewhule from sitting or interfering in the affairs of the House.
Justice Omotoso voided the withholding of the House of Assembly funds on the ground that he has no constitutional power to do so. More so, the court set aside the redeployment of the clerk and deputy clerk by the governor, having declared the action null and void.
Justice Omotoso ordered the clerk and the deputy clerk to resume office immediately without restrictions.
Furthermore, Governor Fubara was ordered to release all monies standing in the credit of the House of Assembly to Speaker Martin Amaewhule.
In addition, the Judge ordered the Inspector General of Police to immediately provide adequate security to the speaker and the House of Assembly members loyal to Wike.
Similarly, Justice Omotoso barred the National Assembly from taking over the Rivers State House of Assembly or accept or treat any request from Governor Fubara.
James Omotoso held that Governor Fubara acted like a “tyrant” in the ways and manners the House of Assembly was demolished and its funds from the consolidated account withheld.
Justice Omotoso noted that the presentation of the 2024 budget by Fubara to the four lawmakers was in contempt to his order issued against the governor from taking any action on the House of Assembly because of the pendency of the suit.
Recall that the Rivers House of Assembly and its Speaker, Martin Amaewhule (1st and 2nd plaintiffs, respectively) filed the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1613/2023.
In the amended originating summons filed on December 11, 2023, the plaintiffs sued the National Assembly, Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Senate Majority Leader, and Senate Minority Leader as the 1st to the 5th defendants, respectively.
The House of Representatives Speaker, House Deputy Speaker, House Majority Leader, House Minority Leader, Clerk to the National Assembly were also sued as the 6th to the 10th defendants, respectively.
They also sued the governor of Rivers State, Attorney-General of Rivers, Commissioner of Finance, Accountant-General of Rivers, Rivers State Civil Service Commission, Inspector-General of Police and Edison Ehie, who was also listed as Rivers State House of Assembly’s speaker in the suit, as the 11th to the 17th defendants, respectively.
Specifically, the plaintiffs prayed for an order restraining the 1st to the 10th defendants from entertaining any request from the 11th defendant (Governor Fubara) to take over the performance of the functions of Rivers State Assembly, including its role to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Rivers in respect of matters that are within its constitutional and legislative competence.
Among others, they wanted an order restraining Fubara as well as the 12th, 13th and 14th defendants from withholding any amount standing to the credit of the Rivers State House of Assembly in the state’s Consolidated Revenue Fund, including salaries and emoluments due and payable to the speaker, deputy speaker and other members of the House as well as to the clerk, deputy clerk and other members of staff of the Assembly.
Hours after Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered Governor Siminalayi Fubara to represent the 2024 budget, a sister court ordered parties in the suit to maintain the status quo.
In a ruling by Justice J. O. Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja, parties in the suit were ordered not to take further steps, pending the determination of an application that is seeking to stop Governor Siminalayi Fubara from representing the already passed 2024 budget of the state before the legislative house.
Justice Abdulmalik fixed February 28 to hear the application which was brought before the court by six elders of the state.
Justice Abdulmalik ordered substituted service of the court processes on the defendants, stressing that in view of circumstances surrounding the case, they should be put on notice to enable them to respond to the ex-parte motion the plaintiffs filed to stop the re-presentation of the Rivers State budget to the proWike lawmakers that decamped to the APC.
The plaintiffs in the matter, led by a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly representing Bonny State Constituency, Hon. Victor Okon Jumbo, are Senator Bennett Birabi, Senator Andrew Uchendu, Rear Admiral O.P. Fingesi, Ann Kio Briggs and Emmanuel Deinma.
They had through their team of lawyers led by Mr. Olukayode Ajulo (SAN) approached the court, praying it to declare seats of 27 lawmakers in the state that defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) vacant.
By the suit, the plaintiffs are querying the constitutionality of a peace agreement they alleged that President Bola Tinubu compelled Governor Fubara to enter into with the immediate past governor of the state and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
They maintained that the said agreement that was signed on December 18, 2023, was not only illegal, but amounted to a usurpation, nullification and undermining of the extant/binding relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
Consequently, they are praying the court to among other things, determine whether President Tinubu, Governor Fubara and the Rivers State Assembly have the right and are entitled to enter into any agreement that has the effect of nullifying or undermining the constitutional/legal potency of the provisions of Section 109 (I) (g) and (2) of the 1999 constitution, as amended.
They argued that neither President Tinubu nor Governor Fubara has the statutory powers to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from conducting fresh election to replace the 27 Rivers State lawmakers that defected from the PDP to the APC.
Apart from President Tinubu, the 1st defendant in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/ CS/1718/2023, other defendants are the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Governor Fubara, Rivers Assembly, Speaker of the Rivers State Assembly and the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
In a 19-paragraph affidavit that was deposed to by the 6th plaintiff, Deinma, who identified himself as an indigene of Rivers State from Okrika Local Government Area, the court was told that sometime in November, 2023, 27 out of 32 members of the Rivers State Assembly, “without any justification or lawful excuse whatsoever, decided to defect from the PDP, being the platform on which they were elected.”
According to the deponent: “On the basis of the above fact, the said 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly moved out of the Rivers State House of Assembly Complex and began to hold their proceedings at a different location.
“That it became an obvious fact that the 27 members of the Rivers State House Assembly are fully loyal to the former governor of Rivers State, Chief Ezenwo Nyesom Wike (now the Hon. Minister of FCT), while they are disloyal to the current governor of Rivers State, Mr. Siminalayi Fubara.
“That only five (5) honourable members of the Rivers State House of Assembly remained with the PDP, as they did not defect/decamp to the APC but remained as members of the PDP and as valid members of the Rivers State House of Assembly”.
