By Akinwale Kasali
Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State is in for a difficult time. And, if not handled carefully, could face impeachment.
Th Supreme Court of Nigeria has thrown him under the bus. The Court on Monday, 10th February dismissed his appeal which challenged the Court of Appeal’s judgement that affirmed Hon. Martin Amaewhule as the authentic Speaker of the Rivers State Assembly. The Court has thus, surrendered him to the Amaewhule-led House of Assembly to deal with as it likes.
At the Supreme Court Sitting, a five-member panel, headed by the Honourable Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, dismissed the appeal marked SC/CV/1071/2024 after it was withdrawn.
Though the matter was originally fixed for hearing, when it was called up, Governor Fubara, through his team of lawyers led by Yusuf Ali, SAN, announced his decision to withdraw the appeal.
Ali told the court that his client’s decision was based on the fact that the matter had been overtaken by events.
Whereas Wole Olanipekun, SAN, who appeared for the Amaewhule-led Rivers State lawmakers, did not oppose the withdrawal, he, however, demanded the cost.
Likewise, J. B. Daudu, who appeared for the 3rd to 12th defendants. He, also, asked for costs, even though he did not object to the notice of withdrawal.
The defendants further persuaded the Apex Court to dismiss the matter instead of striking it out, stressing that they had already exchanged processes with the appellant.
Consequently, in its ruling, the Justice Abba-Aji-led panel dismissed the appeal, and awarded four million Naira as costs against Governor Fubara.
It will be recalled that the Appeal Court in Abuja had, in a unanimous verdict it delivered on October 10, 2024, validated the Amaewhule-led members of the Assembly as bona fide lawmakers for the state.
A three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Oyewole, while dismissing an appeal that was lodged by Governor Fubara, upheld a judgement the Federal High Court delivered on January 22, 2024, which nullified the 2024 budget of Rivers State on the premise that it was not presented before members of the State Assembly that were known to the law.
According to the appellate Court, Fubara shot himself on the foot when he voluntarily withdrew a counter-affidavit he filed to challenge a legal action the Amaewhule-led lawmakers instituted to be recognised as valid members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
The Court held that Governor Fubara’s decision to present the 2024 Rivers State Appropriation Bill to only four out of 31 members of the Assembly amounted to a gross violation of section 91 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and an act of “executive recklessness.”
The Appellate Court held that the absence of any document from Fubara to contradict all the claims the Amaewhule-led lawmakers made in their suit meant that he admitted all the facts they stated in the matter.
It accused Fubara of surreptitiously attempting to set aside orders of the trial court through the appeal, saying the mistake he made by withdrawing his counter-affidavit to the originating suit could not be redeemed by brilliant advocacy.
Maintaining that Fubara’s loss was “self-inflicted,” the Appellate Court held that since the counter-affidavit was withdrawn, “the Appellant is deemed to have admitted the rather weighty facts that were presented by the Respondents.”
It will be recalled that the Rivers State Assembly was fractionalised owing to the frosty relationship between Governor Fubara and his predecessor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike.
In the heat of the fracas, Governor Fubara sidelined the Amaewhule-led 26 members of the House that were loyal to Wike and presented the state’s N800 billion 2024 budget before the four lawmakers led by Hon. Edison Ehie, who had emerged as a factional Speaker of the Assembly.
The Ehie-led faction, which had also declared seats of the Amaewhule-led pro-Wike lawmakers vacant for defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party, promptly passed the budget, which was quickly assented to by Governor Fubara.
Meanwhile, following the intervention of President Bola Tinubu, both Fubara and Wike signed a peace pact that included the restoration of Amaewhule as the bona fide Speaker of the State bonafide Speaker of the State Assembly.
The factional Speaker, Ehie, who had approached the Court and was joined as an interested party in the suit, subsequently withdrew all the processes he filed before the court and equally rescinded both his seat and his membership in the Assembly.
While Governor Fubara, in line with the terms of the peace deal, also withdrew all the processes he filed to challenge the suit, the pro-Wike lawmakers only withdrew an impeachment notice they served on him while they declined to terminate their legal action.
While deciding the suit, Justice James Omotosho of the high court held that the budget was invalid as it was not properly presented before the Rivers State House of Assembly as required by the law.
He held that Governor Fubara acted like a tyrant when he demolished the Rivers State Assembly complex and withheld funds standing to the credit of the legislative house.
The court also described as unconstitutional the redeployment of the clerk and deputy clerk of the Rivers State Assembly by Governor Fubara.
Justice Omotosho stressed that the governor lacked the statutory rights to interfere with the operations of the Assembly, adding that he acted in contempt of a subsisting order that barred the parties from taking any steps to overreach the matter that was pending before the Court.
Besides, the Court held that National Assembly could not take over the legislative affairs of the state in the absence of the preconditions that were listed under section 11 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
Therefore, the Court, among other things, nullified all actions the Rivers Assembly took without the participation of the Amaewhule-led members of the House, among which included the presentation of the state’s appropriation bill.
It issued an order of injunction, restraining Governor Fubara from impeding or frustrating the operations of the Assembly under Amaewhule’s leadership as its speaker.
It ordered the governor to release all funds standing to the credit of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
While upholding the verdict of the lower court, the appellate court held that Fubara conceded to the Amaewhule-led lawmakers when he withdrew all the processes he filed against their suit.
It held that the orders of the trial court were appropriate in view of the circumstance of the case, saying the appeal Fubara filed before it amounted to an academic exercise.
Accordingly, it ordered Fubara to pay a cost of N500,000 to each of the Respondents in the appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/133/2024.
For the records, the Amaewhule-led House of Assembly is backed by Fubara’s estranged political godfather and immediate predecessor, Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
