The Supreme Court dealt a heavy blow to Governor Siminalaye Fubara of Rivers State on Friday, as it reinstated the judgement that barred the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the Accountant General of the Federation, from releasing statutory monthly allocations to the state.
The apex court, in another judgement, equally nullified the outcome of the Local Government Elections that held in the state on October 5, 2024. The court further ordered the Hon. Martins Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to the immediate past governor of the state and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, to forthwith, resume sitting, unhindered.
Meanwhile, mixed reactions have trailed the judgments of the Supreme Court on the crisis in Rivers state. Immediate governor of the state and current Minister of the FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike, in his reaction described the judgment as the end of the reign of impunity in Rivers state saying Governor Fubara’s government has collapsed and all his decisions and appointments invalidated. Governor Fubara on his part said the state government would carefully evaluate the situation and determine the next steps to take in the best interest of Rivers State and its people. Similarly, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze has described the reinstatement of the 27 defected lawmakers as a clear declaration of war on the state.
The Judgment
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, faulted the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal for vacating the initial order that stopped the release of funds to Rivers State from the consolidated revenue, following Governor Fubara’s refusal to re-present the 2024 Appropriation Bill of the state before the Hon. Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
It held that contrary to the verdict of the appellate court, the Federal High Court in Abuja had the requisite jurisdiction to entertain the suit the 27 pro-Wike lawmakers filed to challenge the continued withdrawal and expenditure of funds belonging to the state, without the approval of the State Assembly.
Justice Emmanuel Agim, who delivered the lead judgement on Friday, held that the appellate court misapprehended the core issue in dispute when it pegged it on the consolidated revenue of Rivers State alone. He held that it was such wrong view that influenced the appellate court to deliver judgement in Fubara’s favour, stressing that what was at the center of the case was the refusal of the Rivers state governor to obey a subsisting court order that mandated him to present the 2024 Appropriation Bill of the state before a validly constituted House of Assembly.
Slamming Fubara’s decision to present the Appropriation Bill before only four members of the Assembly that are his loyalists, the Supreme Court held that the 27 pro-Wike lawmakers remained valid members of the Rivers Assembly in the absence of evidence that they allegedly defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The court noted that Governor Fubara shot himself on the foot, when he withdrew processes he filed in the legal action the Hon. Amaewhule-led lawmakers filed to be recognised as authentic members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. It held that in the absence of any counter-affidavit from the governor, it was deemed that he admitted all the depositions that were made by the lawmakers, including the allegation that he engaged in a reckless exercise of his executive powers.
More so, the apex court dismissed Governor Fubara’s claim that in view of the defection of the lawmakers, he had to invoke the doctrine of necessity to “salvage unsavoury constitutional imbroglio” that was occasioned by the defection of the 27 lawmakers, hence his presentation of the Appropriation Bill to only four remaining members of the Assembly.
According to the court, the doctrine of necessity could not be invoked to justify an illegal action that involved the governor destroying the House of Assembly complex out of fear that he would be impeached by the lawmakers. It held that the purported sitting of four members of the Assembly, in disobedience to an earlier order of court that empowered the Hon. Amaewhule-led lawmakers to carry out legislative functions for the state, amounted to a nullity as same remained void in the eyes of the law. “Political disagreement cannot provide justification for contempt,” the court added, as it restrained the CBN and the AGF from further releasing allocations to Rivers State.
Aside from ordering all the elected members of the Assembly to resume sitting immediately, the Supreme Court awarded N5million cost against governor Fubara.
It will be recalled that the Court of Appeal had on December 13, last year, in a split decision of two-to-one, held that the Federal High Court in Abuja lacked the requisite jurisdiction to entertain the suit that led to the stoppage of monthly allocations to Rivers State. The judgement was a fall-out of a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/984/24, which was brought before the court by the Hon. Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly. The lawmakers alleged that Governor Fubara’s continued unauthorized withdrawals from the consolidated revenues funds of Rivers state, was in breach of section 120 (2) and (4) as well as section 122 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
Supreme Court sacks LG Chairmen, Councillors in Rivers
Meanwhile, in another judgement, the Supreme Court, on Friday, sacked all the Chairmen and Councillors that emerged from the recent Local Government Elections that held in Rivers State. Their sack followed an appeal that was brought before the court by the APC. In a unanimous decision by the Justice Abba-Aji-led panel, the apex court vacated the November 21, 2024, judgement of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which validated the election of the LG officials.
Delivering the lead judgement, Justice Jamilu Tukur held that there was no evidence to establish that condition precedents stipulated by section 150(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022, was met before the election was conducted by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commissioners, RSIEC.
Therefore, the apex court restored an earlier verdict of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which barred the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from releasing voters register to the RSIEC for the conduct of the LG polls. It maintained that there was no evidence that INEC carried out a review of the voters register, at least 90 days before the election was held. It was the position of the apex court that the Rivers LG polls was conducted in clear violation of the Electoral Act, adding that notice of the election and continuous review of the voters register, was not done as required by the law. It will be recalled that a special panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Onyekachi Otisi had held that the high court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain suit against the Rivers State LG elections.
Governor Fubara reacts
Reacting to the judgments of the Supreme Court, Governor Siminalayi Fubara in a statement issued by his Commissioner for Information, Joe Johnson, said, “at this time, we are awaiting a detailed briefing on the implications of the judgment. We will carefully evaluate the situation and determine the next steps to take in the best interest of Rivers State and its people. Though we have not got the details of the judgment from our legal team, we enjoin Rivers people to remain calm, law abiding and go about our legitimate businesses as we seek clarity on the judgment. Since the issue of defection wasn’t on the table before the learned Justices, in their eyes, Amaewhule and the 26 others are still operating as lawmakers until that matter of defection comes before them. We assure you that we remain committed to upholding our mandate to protect the best interest and the rule of law in all matters affecting our dear State”.
Fubara’s government has collapsed —Wike
Celebrating the apex court judgment, FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike said the Supreme Court has ended the reign of impunity in Rivers state noting that his successor has committed impeachable offences. Wike also slammed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP Governors’ Forum and Bauchi state Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed as well as those he called “television lawyers” for supporting lawlessness.
Speaking in Abuja after the judgment, the minister said the Rivers state Governor, Siminalayi Fubara has no option than to obey the apex court judgment. Noting that with the court’s declaration, Fubara’s government has collapsed and all his decisions and appointments invalidated, Wike said the governor committed a lot of constitutional infractions which are impeachable but that he would not advise the state lawmakers to impeach him.Asked to react to the court’s declaration that the Amaewhule faction of the assembly is the properly constituted lawmaking arm of government in the state, the minister simply declared; “There is nothing like Amaewhule faction”.
His words: “What the Supreme Court said was that the budget should be presented to the properly constituted assembly, which is the authentic leadership of the assembly led by Martin Chike Amaewhule. I have always said that the wheel of justice is sluggish but it will come when it will come. This matter has been laid to rest by the highest court of the land. The only thing that can happen now is for anybody unhappy to appeal to God if there is an opportunity to appeal to God.
“The Supreme Court has made it very clear that you cannot have a democracy without a legislature. The Supreme Court has made it very clear that you cannot have a government without a legislature. It is unheard of, where anybody will say, three people will constitute an assembly to make laws for the entire state. It is unheard of. It has nothing to do with any individual whether you like this person’s face or not but what is important is that three people make laws for a state, not to even talk about appropriation.So, for me, it is happiness for Rivers people. It is happiness for Nigerians that, yes, this impunity must stop. Enough is enough. We can’t continue with this.
“You are aware when the issue of local government came up, a governor elected, who had taken oath to abide by the constitution, came up to say, that is a corrupt judgment, castigating the judiciary. But thank God, today, the Supreme Court has said it all. Go back, you have no budget. Central bank, accountant general, you cannot continue to release money when there is no government. Until you present your budget to the appropriate assembly, which is the 27 members, no money should be released. You refused to follow the Electoral Act in terms of conducting local government election. What was the issue? INEC, don’t give voters register if you don’t comply, you said no, you will not obey and some people were clapping. People like Atiku, were hailing him that, yes, you have done well. I hope they will also hail him today. I hope the chairman of PDP Governors Forum will also hail him today. Today the Supreme Court has silenced them. Pontificate in court, not on the television. So I commend our lawyers for the job well done.
“All those commissioners, his three members, they are all gone. There are no commissioners. They never existed in the first place. I am sure the so-called attorney general will know that. He will not go and say he’s an attorney general again. He knows the consequences of saying he is an attorney general. He knows that he is gone.
Impeachable offences
“You expended 2024 budget without appropriation. Who does that? That one man would spend, billions, trillions of Naira without the Legislature approving it? What can be constitutional infraction more than that? It has never happened. Do you need anybody now to tell you that the governor has committed an impeachable offence? Even if the Chief Judge of the state, for example, is his friend, what can the Chief Judge do now? The Supreme Court has said there was no budget. Assuming the Legislature wants to commence impeachment proceedings, what would the judge do? Yes the Chief Judge was part of the people who were supporting him. So, even if now, the assembly wants to, which I will not advise, but assuming they want to impeach him, what can you do now? He appointed commissioners without legislative backing. He demolished an arm of government building”, Wike added.
This is a declaration of war on Rivers – Eze
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze has argued that the Supreme Court judgment reinstating the 27 defected lawmakers as valid members of the state House of Assembly was a clear declaration of war on the state. Eze described the ruling on Rivers crisis as not only a Black Friday in the country’s nascent democracy, but “declaration of war against Rivers State and death of judiciary in Nigeria”. He however commended and congratulated Governor Siminalyi Fubara for being a man by surviving the onslaught of antidemocratic forces in Nigeria.
The APC chieftain said the Supreme Court ruling that the Martins Amaewhule led State House of Assembly should resume sitting was rather unfortunate.
“For the Supreme Court to ignore these facts and support the illegality of asking Amaewhule to continue sitting is not only unfortunate, wicked, evil, sad, undemocratic and declaration of war against the people of Rivers State and democracy in Nigeria, but most unfortunate. Nigerians should not think that this sad stand against Rivers State is against Gov Sim Fubara but against our democracy. So, Nigerians should arise and defend our democracy. The next few days will be very interesting to see how these plots aimed at removing the Governor will play out. No matter what maybe the outcome, Sim Fubara has fought a good fight by exposing how one man wants to stifle the development of the State and pocket the common patrimony of the State into his pocket”, he said.
Supreme Court has restored sanity in Rivers – APC
The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State has however hailed the Supreme Court on the decisions on the protracted crises rocking the Rivers State government thereby putting everything to rest. APC said the apex court reiterated the need for obedience to the laws of the land as the only panacea to enthroning peace, tranquility and development.
A statement by the publicity secretary of the party, Chibike Ikenga said “these contentious issues having been addressed with proper alignment to the laws and constitution of the land, we call on all lovers of democracy, men/women of goodwill to prevail on Gov Fubara to quickly retrace his steps not supported by the laws and do the needful for the development of our dear state to thrive.
“As a party, we had at various opportunities called on Gov Fubara to obey court orders, rulings, judgements and the extant laws for peace but all our entreaties fell on deaf ears. Our challenge of the unconstitutionality of the local government election which has been validated by the Apex Court was done in good faith to save the resources of the people at the third tier from further developmental deterioration. We assure the citizens of the state, that as the opposition party, we will continue to act as watchdogs for good governance and qualitative delivery of the yearnings and aspirations of our people”. (Vanguard)
