By Mark Lenu
A judicial source who craved anonymity because he Is not allowed to say negative things about his profession has expressed unease with the way the Judiciary is handling the political crisis in Rivers State.
His reaction followed the Court of Appeal’s judgment which affirmed the Martin Amaewhule led faction as bona-fide members of the state House of Assembly.
A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, in a unanimous judgment on Thursday, dismissed the appeal filed by the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, for lacking in merit.
The appellate court firmly upheld the January 22 judgment of the Federal High Court, delivered by Justice James Omotosho, which nullified the 2024 state budget on the grounds that it was not presented before members of the state Assembly as required by law. The court admonished Governor Fubara for not adhering to the rule of law in his actions.
Justice Joseph Oyewole, while delivering the lead judgment held that Governor Fubara’s decision to present the 2024 Rivers State Appropriation Bill to only four out of 31 members of the Assembly constituted a gross violation of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
The source told our correspondent that since the political fight between Fubara and the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike began, it has been the courts in Abuja versus the courts in Rivers State.
“While the courts in Rivers State seem to be siding Fubara, the courts in Abuja appear to be on the path of Wike and their conflicting rulings have been promoting political tension in the state,” the source said
He therefore called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, and the National Judicial Council to wade into the legal issues confronting the state and caution presiding judges/justices to desist from rulings that will further promote crisis in the state.
Reacting to the judgment of the appeal court, the Rivers State Government had insisted that the court did not reinstate Amaewhule as a speaker, meaning it would not recognize Amaewhule as the speaker of the state House of Assembly.
In a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Thursday, the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Israel Iboroma, clarified that Amaewhule and 26 others had defected on December 11, 2023, adding that their seats became automatically vacant from the moment they publicly announced their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.
Iboroma emphasized that the issue of their defection was never brought before the Federal High Court or the Court of Appeal in Abuja, adding that no court has legitimized their membership in the House of Assembly after their defection.
