Supreme Court Reserves Judgment On Four Rivers Political Cases, Dismisses Appeal On 2024 Budget Presentation
The Supreme Court, yesterday, reserved judgements in four separate appeals surrounding the Rivers State political logjam, which has continued to pit the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike against the incumbent governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
But the court dismissed the appeal by Fubara against the judgement ordering him to re-present the state’s 2024 appropriation before the faction of the State House of Assembly led by Rt Hon. Martin Amaewhule.
A five-member panel of justices of the apex court led by Justice Uwani Musa Aba-Aji, dismissed the appeal shortly after it was withdrawn by Fubara’s lawyers led by Mr Yusuf Ali, SAN.
Both the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal had in separate judgements, faulted Fubara’s presentation of the 2024 appropriation before a five-member assembly led by Rt Hon. Edison Ehie.
Fubara predicated his decision to present to the Ehie-led Assembly on the grounds that the Amaewhule-led faction, having defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) ceases to be lawful members of the state assembly.
But the two lower courts held that he could not present the budget before a five member house of assembly, especially when he did not present any evidence that the faction of Amaewhule 27 lawmakers defected from the PDP to the APC.
Displeased with the judgements of the two lower courts, Fubara, last year, approached the apex court for an order setting aside the concurrent judgements ordering him to represent the budget to the Amaewhule-led faction.
However, when the matter came up up yesterday, Ali informed the five-member panel of justices of a notice of withdrawal filed on February 6, seeking to withdraw the appeal on the grounds that, “the appeal has been overtaken by events.”
Responding, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, who represented Rivers State House of Assembly and Amaewhule, 1st and 2nd respondents respectively and Chief Joseph Daudu, SAN, who represented 3rd to 12th respondents (National Assembly and the leadership), said they were not opposed to the withdrawal, pointing out that since issues had been joined by all parties, the proper thing for the court to do was to dismiss the appeal instead of striking it out.
Besides, Olanipekun and Daudu also asked for a cost of N2 million for each of their clients.
In a short ruling, Justice Aba-Aji, granted the application and dismissed the appeal.
She also granted the request for cost of N2 million in favour of the 1st to 12 respondents.
But, the apex court reserved its verdicts on four other cases on the state political crisis, saying a date would be communicated to lawyers representing parties in the appeals shortly after the counsel adopted their processes for and against the various appeals.
The four appeals are marked SC/CV/1174/2024, between Rivers State House of Assembly and others against the Rivers State Government and nine others; SC/CV/1175/2024, between Rivers State House of Assembly and others against the Rivers State Governor and nine others.
The others are SC/CV/1176/2024, between Rivers State House of Assembly and others against Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), and nine others; and SC/CV/1177/2024, between Rivers State House of Assembly and others against the Accountant General of Rivers State and nine others.
They were in respect of some judgements delivered by the Federal High Court, Abuja which prohibited the release of monthly allocations to Rivers State from the Federation Account and another that barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing voter’s register to the state government for the purpose conducting local government election among others.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja, had ordered the stoppage of the release of allocations from the federal government to Rivers State until the governor presented the budget before the Martin Amaewhule-led House of Assembly members.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja, however, upturned the the judgement on the grounds of grave injustice in the findings and decisions.
In another judgement, the Court of Appeal, upturned the decision of Justice Peter Lifu, also of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which had ruled against the conduct of the October 5, 2024, local government council election in Rivers on the grounds that due process of Rivers State laws on local government elections had not been followed.
Shedding light on the development, senior lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, corrected the misconception that the Supreme Court recognised the Amaewhule-led faction as the authentic leadership of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
