THE Rivers State House of Assembly has adjourned sitting indefinitely amid its rift with the state government led by Siminalayi Fubara.
The House’s decision to adjourn legislative duties indefinitely was taken during plenary, presided over by the Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, in Port Harcourt on Friday, March 14.
The action came hours after Fubara wrote to the Speaker, informing him of his plan to re-present the 2025 appropriation bill for consideration and approval.
Fubara, in the letter, 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.
The governor’s attempt to re-present the budget complies with a recent Supreme Court judgment on political impasse in the state.
He 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.
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, claiming that a lack of official communication between the governor and the Assembly was responsible for their action.
However, Fubara claimed he informed the Speaker 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.
The ICIR reports that with the latest adjournment, the Rivers Assembly has ignored Fubara three times since the Supreme Court’s ruling.
On Sunday, March 9, this organisation reported that the governor invited the Assembly members to a meeting at his office to enable him to address several issues, including payment of the lawmakers’ salaries and allowances since he stopped recognising them after their defection from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The Assembly ignored the invitation.
They also shunned his planned re-presentation of the 2025 budget on Wednesday, March 12.
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 conflict 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 APC, the party in which Wike serves as minister in Abuja.
He went on to conduct a new poll, which the Supreme Court annulled.
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
Absolute nonsense. Thank God everyone is seeing the Governor effort to present the budget.