Fubara asks Appeal Court to vacate order stopping allocations to Rivers

Mr Fubara’s plea came on a day the Justice Barka-led panel consolidated five other appeals that arose from the said judgment of the high court.

Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State asked the Court of Appeal on Friday to set aside the judgment that barred the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from releasing monthly allocations from the federation account to Rivers.

The governor, through his counsel Yusuf Ali, SAN, asked a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Hamma Barka, to vacate the high court order which he said was issued in bad faith.

He urged the appellate court to allow his appeal, marked CA/ABJ/CV/1303/2024, and nullify the adverse orders that Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court made against the state in the judgment she delivered on 30 October.

Mr Fubara’s plea came on a day the Justice Barka-led panel consolidated five other appeals that arose from the said judgment 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.

In addition to Mr Fubara, the other appellants in the matter are the Rivers State Government, the Accountant-General of Rivers State, and Zenith Bank Plc.

The lower court had restrained the CBN from further allowing the Rivers 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 Martins Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers House of Assembly.

The defendants in the matter are the CBN, Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF).

Others are Mr Fubara, the Accountant-General of Rivers, the Rivers Independent Electoral Commission, the Chief Judge of Rivers, S.C. Amadi, the Chairperson of the Rivers election commission, Adolphus Enebeli, and the Rivers State Government.

The appellants, through their respective counsel, urged the appellate court to allow their appeal.

Pro-Wike lawmakers oppose Fubara’s application

However, the Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers House of Assembly, through their team of lawyers led by J. B. Daudu, SAN, asked the court to dismiss the appeals and affirm the high court’s judgment.

After all the parties adopted their briefs of argument on the matter, the panel reserved its judgment until a date that would be communicated to the parties.

The factional members of the Rivers Assembly loyal to the immediate past governor of the state and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, had persuaded the lower court to withhold all federal monthly allocations meant for Rivers.

They based their case on Governor Fubara’s refusal to comply with a court order that directed him to represent the state’s 2024 Appropriation Bill before them.

Governor Fubara had insisted that the Amaewhule-led group had since ceased to be lawmakers in the state, having defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, which sponsored their election, to the All Progressives Congress.

(NAN)