Rivers Assembly Crisis: Supreme Court Bars CBN, Accountant General From Releasing Funds To Rivers Govt
Justice Emmanuel Agim, leading a 5-man panel of the Supreme Court, on Friday barred the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant-General of the Federation from releasing federation allocation to the Rivers Government.
The Apex court said the order remain subsists until the Rivers State government purges itself of what the court described as “flagrant disobedience to court orders”.
In a one hour, thirty-six-minute judgment delivered by Justice Agim, the panel was unanimous in its dismissal of the cross-appeal filed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara challenging the validity of the House of Assembly presided over by Martin Amaewhule as the Speaker.
Dismissing Governor Fubara’s appeal, the panel ordered Martin Amaewhule to resume sitting immediately with other elected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
According to Justice Agim, “it is an aberration” for Governor Fubara to have purportedly presented an appropriation bill before a four-man House of Assembly thereby denying twenty-eight constituencies of effective representation in vagrant violation of a court order mandating him (Fubara) to re-present the 2024 appropriation bill before a validly constituted Assembly led by Amaewhule.
In addition, the court reasoned that the actions of Governor Fubara over the alleged defection of twenty-eight members of the Rivers Assembly are an act of brigandage and dictatorship aimed at preventing the House from performing its legitimate functions under the speakership of Amaewhule.
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