The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Monday, vacated the judgement that barred the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, from releasing monthly statutory allocations to Rivers State.
A three-member panel of Justices of the appellate court, in a split decision of two-to-one, held that the Federal High Court in Abuja lacked the requisite jurisdiction to entertain the suit legal that led to the restraining order.
It held that the fact that federal agencies were joined as parties in the matter was not sufficient to confer the court with unfettered jurisdiction to hear the case.
According to the Justice Hamma Barka-led panel, since the subject matter of the legal dispute bordered on the budget appropriation of a state, the Federal High Court in Abuja was not the appropriate venue for such matter to be ventilated.
It, therefore, upheld six separate appeals the aggrieved parties lodged to set-aside the high court judgement.
However, a member of the panel, Justice Adebukola Banjoko, in her dissenting judgement, affirmed the order of the high court.
The appeals that were decided on Monday, were marked as: CA/ABJ/CV/1277/24, CA/ABJ/CV/1196/24, CA/ABJ/CV/1287/24, CA/ABJ/CV/1293/24 and CA/ABJ/CV/1360/2024.
Aside from governor Siminalayi Fubara, other appellants in the matter included the Rivers State Government, the Accountant-General of Rivers State and Zenith Bank Plc.
Governor Fubara had on November 22, through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Yusuf Ali, SAN, prayed the appellate court to allow his appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/1303/2024 and nullify the high court order which he maintained was issued in bad faith.
He urged the appellate court to allow his appeal and void the adverse orders that Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court made against the state in the judgement she delivered on October 30.
Governor Fubara’s plea came on a day the appellate court consolidated all the appeals that arose from the said judgement of the high court.
It will be recalled that the high court had restrained the CBN from further allowing the Rivers state government to draw funds from the consolidated revenue account.
The restraining order followed a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/984/24, which was brought before the court by the Hon. Martins Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Cited as defendants in the matter included the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF).
Others were governor Fubara, the Accountant-General of Rivers; Rivers Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC; Chief Judge of Rivers, Hon. Justice S.C. Amadi; Chairman of RSIEC, Hon. Justice Adolphus Enebeli (rtd.) and the Government of Rivers State.
While the appellants, through their respective counsel, beseeched the appellate court to allow their appeal, on the other hand, the Hon. Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly, through their team of lawyers led by Mr. J. B. Daudu, SAN, asked the court to dismiss the appeals and affirm the high court judgement.
The factional members of the Rivers State Assembly loyal to the immediate past governor of the state and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr. Nyesom Wike, had persuaded the lower court to withhold all federal monthly allocations meant for Rivers state.
They predicated their case on the ground that governor Fubara refused to comply with an order of court that directed him to represent the 2024 Appropriation Bill of the state, before them.
Governor Fubara had insisted that the Hon. Amaewhule-led group had since ceased to be lawmakers in the state, having decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which sponsored their election, to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
However, the 27 lawmakers maintained that the high court had in a judgement that was delivered by Justice James Omotosho, recognised Hon. Amaewhule as the authentic Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
They noted that the court invalidated the 2024 budget proposal that was presented before the four-member faction of the Assembly, led by Hon. Victor Oko-Jumbo.
The plaintiffs added that the high court decision, which was in their favour, was upheld by the appellate court.
They alleged that governor Fubara had continued to make unauthorized withdrawals from the consolidated revenues funds of Rivers state, in breach of section 120 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
Consequently, the plaintiffs, in the Originating Summons they filed on July 15, urged the court to enforce the fiscal provisions of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, by restraining the Federal Government and the CBN from releasing further allocations to the Rivers state government.
They said the aim of their suit was to ensure fiscal probity and accountability in the utilization of funds allocated to the state from the federation account.
Even though all the defendants, including the apex bank, challenged the competence of the suit, however, Justice Abdulmalik held that she found merit in the case of the plaintiffs.
The defendants had contended that the court in Abuja lacked the territorial jurisdiction to handle the matter which they argued should have been filed before the Port Harcourt Division of the Federal High Court.
Governor Fubara specifically accused the plaintiffs of abusing the judicial process and engaging in forum shopping through multiplicity of suits relating to the same subject matter.
He insisted that the plaintiffs’ seats were declared vacant after they defected to the APC, even as he queried their locus-standi (legal right) to initiate the action.
An application the Hon. Oko-Jumbo-led faction of the Assembly filed to be joined as interested parties in the substantive suit, was refused by the trial court.
In her judgement, Justice Abdulmalik held that the defendants appeared to have glossed over subsisting judgements that conferred legality on the Hon. Amaewhule-led lawmakers.
She held that Justice Omotosho’s verdict delivered on January 22 and that of the appellate court dated October 10, effectively settled the issue of detection of the plaintiffs.
Justice Abdulmalik noted that the appellate court held that governor Fubara’s presentation of the Rivers Appropriation Bill to only four members of the Assembly, was in gross violation of section 91 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
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