As at November 27, 2024, civil servants in Rivers State started receiving alerts for their November salaries from their respective holding banks. The joy on their faces was palpable because the salaries contained the new minimum wage of N85,000 approved by the state Governor, Siminalayi Fubara for all civil servants in the state. There had been pervasive apprehension among the workforce, on how they would cope following the judgment of Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which on October 30, 2024, ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to withhold the Rivers State share of the federal allocation.
Justice Abdulmalik, who issued the order in the suit filed by the Rivers State House of Assembly and Martin Amaewhule, as its speaker, held that the presentation of the 2024 budget by Gov. Fubara before a four-member state House of Assembly was an affront to the constitutional provisions. The judge specifically, held that the governor’s action in implementing an unlawful budget smacked of a gross violation of the 1999 constitution, he swore to protect and consequently, restrained the apex bank, the accountant general of the federation, Zenith Bank and Access Bank from further allowing Gov. Fubara to access money from the consolidated revenue and federation accounts.
The judge held that the action of the four-member Rivers State House of Assembly being held on to by Gov. Fubara as a yardstick to justify the passage of the unlawful budget, had since been nullified and set aside by the Federal High Court, Abuja, and the Court of Appeal, Abuja. According to the him, the judgment of the Rivers State High Court, which gave power to the governor to implement the 2024 budget, had also been set aside by the Court of Appeal. She said that the Appropriation Act, 2024, being operated by the Fubara, having not been passed by the lawful state House of Assembly is illegal, unlawful and a subversion of the 1999 constitution. “It is mandatory to present appropriation bills before the appropriate houses of assembly, before legitimate disbursements and withdrawals can be made,” the judge added.
She also issued another order of injunction restraining Gov. Fubara, the accountant general of the state and their agents from authorizing the withdrawal of money from the state’s bank accounts domiciled at the Zenith Bank and Access Bank, until the budget of the state is passed by the appropriate state House of Assembly. The suit, which has the Rivers State House of Assembly and Amaewhule as plaintiffs, has the CBN, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, the accountant general of the federation, the state governor, the state accountant general, the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), Justice S. C. Amadi, the Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Adolphus Enebeli, the chairman of RSIEC and Rivers State Government as defendants.
However, Gov. Fubara had filed an appeal and stay of execution against the ruling which the appellate court granted. The stay of execution provided a temporary relief for Fubara and the state government, thus opening a window for the state to continue to access its share of the federal allocations.
Confirming the development, the Director of Press in the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Bawa Mokwa, said that Rivers State would continue to receive its allocation because of a subsisting order of a stay of execution from a higher court against the judgment of Federal High Court which had initially issued the order to suspend the allocation.
Furthermore, the Appeal Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice Hamma Barka consolidated all five appeals on the Rivers State political imbroglio, including the one bordering on the state federal allocations and thereafter, reserved ruling to a date to be communicated to the parties.
Justice Barka’s action followed a request by counsel to Gov. Fubara, Yusuf Ali (SAN), who had urged the court to consolidate all the cases.
Prior to his electoral victory, Gov. Fubara was the accountant general of Rivers State, while the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike was the state governor. Fubara was among the persons Wike purchased nomination forms for, to contest the governorship position as he was shopping for a candidate to succeed him. Having also cleared the way for Fubara to emerge as the candidate of the PDP during the governorship primaries, Wike also went ahead to bankroll the campaign and ensured that Fubara was victorious in the governorship election. But the bubble was soon to burst between the master and his protégé, shortly after Fubara ascended the position of the chief executive of the oil- rich state after his inauguration.
The bone of contention as Fubara recently revealed, borders on the control of the state’s abundant resources. Apparently, Fubara had put up a resistance against moves by certain privileged persons, to corner the resources of the state which ostensibly angered the FCT minister and he moved against the governor. The FCT minister allegedly thereafter instigated an impeachment against Gov. Fubara using the state House of Assembly dominated by his core loyalists. The impeachment however, went awry and the governor survived.
Thereafter, the assembly members split into two factions, 27 pro- Wike and four pro -Fubara. While the pro -Fubara members were accommodated at the Government House for their sittings, the pro- Wike members retired to their residential quarters for their own sittings. The state was thus thrown into a huge political crisis as either faction was sitting and passing motions and repealing existing laws. After a long defeaning silence, President Bola Tinubu summoned the warring parties to the Aso Villa, Abuja, to try to mediate and broker peace.
At the end of the meeting, Tinubu endorsed a peace accord which many described as a poisoned chalice given to Fubara to drink. The peace accord, according to them, only accommodated the interest of the FCT minister and his allies. Little wonder the accord collapsed no sooner than it was signed. Soon after, the FCT minister began to run riot, seizing every opportunity he had to stand behind the microphone, to issue threats and boast of how he would kick out Gov. Fubara out of office in no time. In the midst of the crisis, the pro- Wike legislators led by the Speaker, Amaewhule had publicly announced their defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on which platform they were elected.
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The remaining four pro- Fubara members thereafter, elected Edison Ehie as speaker, who leveraging on Section 109 sub-section (1)g of the 1999 constitution, declared the seats of the 27 pro- Wike members vacant and asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct bye-elections to fill the vacant 27 seats. Since then, the state has been in political turmoil engendering counter- lawsuits from the factions. It was one of the lawsuits instituted by Amaewhule and his group that resulted to the court order to suspend the federal allocation to the Rivers State Government.
The suit to withhold the federal allocation was a calculated game plan to take the wind off the sail of the administration of Fubara and render him incapable of making impact ahead of 2027.
President Tinubu according to analysts is relishing the crisis Wike is stoking in Rivers State because he stands to be the ultimate beneficiary if Fubara is destabilized. For now, Tinubu is facing an albatross of sorts, since everything seems to be working in Gov. Fubara’s favor. The governor had even played down the fuss over the court order to withhold the state allocation, saying he would still be running his administration, paying contractors and fulfilling his obligations to civil servants.
The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) reacting to Tinubu’s olive branch to release the federal allocation, acknowledged that the president’s intervention will prevent widespread hardship among Rivers State. A statement issued by its spokesperson, Dr. Obiuwevbi Ominimini, the PANDEF lauded the president for making a statesmanlike decision that brought relief not only to the people of Rivers State, but also to Nigerians. “This decision will ensure that the innocent citizens of Rivers State will not suffer vicariously from the family feud between some of the political leaders of the state,” it added. The body further expressed the hope that Tinubu’s decision would also aid the efforts by the Obong Victor Attah led high level peace and reconciliation committee recently constituted by the organization.
A civil servant on condition of anonymity described the development in these words: “This is the hand of God at work. Governor Fubara is someone God packaged and sent to Rivers State at this period, and any power whether from hell or high water must fall. We have suffered enough in the hands of Pharoah and our Moses has been sent by God to deliver his people. I do not see it as what President Tinubu did. He cannot take the glory that belongs to God. All the gang up against Rivers State will fail.
A student of Rivers State University, Zuma questioned: “Why should they drag the resources of Rivers State into their political arena? So, we should start jubilating and clapping for Tinubu for doing what? They should come to Port Harcourt and see what Fubara is doing with the state resources. Has anyone complained to them that Rivers’ money is being misappropriated? Let them pack in one corner.” In his reaction, Linus Igwe (trader at Mile One Market) said that “why seize the money in the first place? That Wike and Fubara are fighting, how does it concern the poor and common people of Rivers State? People are crying because of hardship which this government has brought and the same Tinubu wants to seize Rivers’ allocation. Let them fear God o. Does Wike not get tired of all the trouble?
