By Adesina Soyooye
Oko-Jumbo Remains Speaker
The Rivers State Government has said that the dismissal of its case over the representation of the 2024 Budget has no effect whatsoever on the status of governance in the State.
The Government explained that the dismissal of the case by the Supreme Court is a product of its withdrawal by the State Government.
It said that the State Government withdrew the case as it concerns the 2024 Budget has become an exercise in futility, an academic exercise because the 2024 Budget has since been implemented and the fiscal year ended. Indeed, the Governor has already presented the 2025 Budget, as he did in 2024, before the three-member led Victor Oko-Jumbo House of Assembly and not the pro-Nyesom Wike Martin Amaewhule Assembly.
The Government also said that the judgment does not affect the status of the position of Oko-Jumbo as the Speaker of the House of Assembly.
Warisenibo Joseph Johnson, Rivers State Commissioner for Information, explained in Port Hacourt on Monday that the Supreme Court does not waste its time on inconsequential matters.
His words: “The 2024 Budget became spent on December on 31st of 2024 fiscal year. The appeal is of no useful purpose. The only reasonable thing left to do is to withdraw the appeal and have it dismissed.
“The Supreme Court is a very busy Court. It will be most unwise to belabor the Honourable Court with academic appeals without any practical or utilitarian value.
“That is the appeal that urchins are celebrating. There is no Supreme Court judgment against Governor Fubara. Ignore the outdated political propaganda by some desperate politicians.
“Supreme Court ruled on the appeal over the 2024 Budget voluntarily withdrawn by Governor Fubara because 2024 Budget cycle have ended and no need wasting time discussing a budget that have been fully spent and implemented. Rt. Hon. Jumbo is still authentic Speaker and nothing can change that.”
The Government’s stand is strongly supported by Member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Imo Ugochinyere Ikenga and the Coalition of opposition members which he leads in favour of Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Addressing Journalists in Abuja after the Supreme Court judgement, he said: “Governor Fubara did not lose any case at the Supreme Court. He withdrew his appeal over the 2024 Budget because it has already expired and been fully implemented. The Supreme Court simply struck it out.
“The sacked, disgruntled Martin Amaewhule and the pro-Wike group are jubilating out of ignorance. The Supreme Court judgement was based on Governor Fubara’s voluntary withdrawal of the case since the 2024 Budget has already been fully spent and implemented.”
Senior Lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, also laughed at those celebrating the purported loss of Fubara at the Court. He said: “When an Appeal is dismissed not on merit but on the basis of withdrawal by the appellant, the question of celebration doesn’t arise. What happened in this case is that the Governor of Rivers State instructed his lawyers to withdraw the appeal on the grounds that it has become an academic exercise. The Court did not determine who is a Speaker or who is not a Speaker. It didn’t come up.”
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