RIVERS State Governor Siminalayi Fubara has again written to the state House of Assembly, proposing Wednesday, March 19, as the new date for re-presenting the 2025 budget.
Fubara, in a letter to the Speaker of the Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, recalled his failed attempt to re-present the budget on March 12.
He stated that despite sending a soft copy notice and trying to submit a hard copy through the clerk, he and his team were denied entry into the Assembly premises and locked out.
Fubara’s attempt to re-present the budget complies with a recent Supreme Court judgment on political impasse in the state.
Fubara reminded the Speaker that the House had earlier given him a 48-hour ultimatum to re-present the budget, even before he received the Supreme Court ruling.
He reaffirmed his commitment to governance and urged all arms of government to work within legal and constitutional frameworks for the benefit of the state.
Fubara expressed hope that the Assembly would consider his request.
The ICIR reported that drama unfolded on Wednesday, March 12, at the Rivers State House of Assembly Quarters when Fubara arrived to re-present the 2025 budget, only to find the entrance gate locked.
Security personnel had secured the gates as the governor’s convoy arrived, citing the lack of official communication between the governor and the Assembly as the reason for their action.
However, Fubara claimed he informed the Speaker, Martins Amaewhule, of his intention to visit the Assembly through a formal letter.
He also said his efforts to speak with the speaker on the phone for days had proved abortive.
Recall that the power struggle between the governor and the Amaewhule-led Assembly reached its peak after the Supreme Court’s judgment, which ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Attorney General of the Federation to suspend Rivers State’s statutory allocation.
The governor’s attempt to extend an olive branch by inviting the Assembly members for a peace talk was rebuffed. He also failed to meet the 48-hour ultimatum to re-present the budget.
This development has further deepened the rift between the two arms of government.
The ICIR reported that the Supreme Court, in a judgment, affirmed the leadership of the Amaewhule-led Assembly, dismissing Fubara’s appeal challenging the leadership. The court also ordered the governor to pay N2 million to the lawmakers.
The judgment invalidated the previous budget presentation by Fubara to a splinter faction of the Assembly.
The court deemed Fubara’s presentation of an appropriation bill before a small faction of the Assembly as absurd.
It also annulled the recent local government election conducted in the state by Fubara.
After the apex court ruling, Fubara invited the Amaewhule-led House of Assembly for a dialogue which the Assembly failed to honour.
What led to the Supreme Court Ruling?
Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, currently the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have been at loggerheads over who controls the PDP structure in the state, with President Bola Tinubu’s efforts to resolve the stalemate yielding no result.
Fubara has vehemently resisted Wike’s insistence on controlling the party in the state, with both leaders, who were allies before the 2023 governorship election, turning into arch-rivals months after Fubara assumed power.
At the onset of the crisis, 27 members of the state House of Assembly who were loyal to the former governor decamped to the All Progressives Congress, the party in which Wike serves as minister in Abuja.
In addition to declaring the defectors’ seats vacant, Fubara sacked all 23 local government chairmen elected under Wike and declared that their tenure had expired.
He went on to conduct a new poll, which the Supreme Court annulled.
He had ignored the 27 lawmakers who defected to the APC and refused to recognise them as lawmakers.
Consequently, all appointments he made were confirmed by only the four lawmakers loyal to him.
The appointees include commissioners, board chairmen, chief executive of state agencies, heads of the state electoral commission, among others.
He also presented over a trillion naira budget to the splinter group of lawmakers, which the Supreme Court described as unconstitutional.
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance