Governor Siminalayi Fubara, on Friday, urged the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja to set-aside the judgement that barred the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, from releasing monthly allocations to Rivers State......Read The Full Article>>.....Read The Full Article>>
The governor, through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Yusuf Ali, SAN, prayed a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Hamma Barka, to vacate the high court order which he maintained was issued in bad faith.
He urged the appellate court to allow his appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/1303/2024, and nullify adverse orders that Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court made against the state in the judgement she delivered on October 30.
Governor Fubara’s plea came on a day the Justice Barka-led panel consolidated five other appeals that arose from the said judgement of the high court.
The appeals were marked as: CA/ABJ/CV/1277/24, CA/ABJ/CV/1196/24, CA/ABJ/CV/1287/24, CA/ABJ/CV/1293/24 and CA/ABJ/CV/1360/2024.
Aside from governor Fubara, other appellants in the matter included the Rivers State Government, the Accountant-General of Rivers State and Zenith Bank Plc.
It will be recalled that the high court had restrained the CBN from further allowing the Rivers state government to draw funds from the consolidated revenue account.
The restraining order followed a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/984/24, which was brought before the court by the Hon. Martins Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Cited as defendants in the matter included the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF).
Others were governor Fubara, the Accountant-General of Rivers; Rivers Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC; Chief Judge of Rivers, Hon. Justice S.C. Amadi; Chairman of RSIEC, Hon. Justice Adolphus Enebeli (rtd.) and the Government of Rivers State.
While the appellants, through their respective counsel, beseeched the appellate court to allow their appeal, on the other hand, the Hon. Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly, through their team of lawyers led by Mr. J. B. Daudu, SAN, asked the court to dismiss the appeals and affirm the high court judgement.
After all the sides adopted their briefs of argument on Friday, the panel reserved its judgement till a date it said would be communicated to the parties.
The factional members of the Rivers State Assembly loyal to the immediate past governor of the state and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr. Nyesom Wike, had persuaded the lower court to withhold all federal monthly allocations meant for Rivers state.
They predicated their case on the ground that governor Fubara refused to comply with an order of court that directed him to represent the 2024 Appropriation Bill of the state, before them.
Governor Fubara had insisted that the Hon. Amaewhule-led group had since ceased to be lawmakers in the state, having decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which sponsored their election, to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
