The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has called on Governor Siminalayi Fubara to use the opportunity presented by the judgement of the Federal High Court, to present the 2024 budget properly before the State House of Assembly.
Chairman of the APC caretaker committee in the state, Chief Tony Okocha, disclosed this while speaking to newsmen in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Okocha welcomed the decision of the Federal High Court Abuja, nullifying the N800 billion budget passed by the Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie-led group of the Rivers State House of Assembly and signed into law by Fubara.
The APC chairman, who is also the Rivers State representative in the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), commended the judiciary for its uprightness in ensuring that the right thing is done.
He emphasized that the budget was never presented in the first instance because the Ehie-led group did not meet the 1/3 (10 persons, approximately) statutory requirement of forming a quorum in the House. It therefore amounts to putting something on nothing.
Okocha said: “The budget was presented in error. There is no way 4 Assembly Members will be sitting as an Assembly when the law stipulated one-third, which is about 10 members. So it means that the Assembly never met, and for the Governor to take such a risk amounts to putting something on nothing.
“So the decision of the Federal High Court, which also stopped the Governor from interfering with the affairs of the Rivers State House of Assembly, is in order and is welcomed by us.”
He therefore calls on the Governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, to present the budget to the Rt. Hon. Martins Amaewhule-led Rivers State House of Assembly in the interest of the good people of Rivers State.
A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday, set aside the Rivers’ N800 billion budget passed by five members of the house led by the Edison Ehie-led faction.
Justice James Omotosho, in a judgment, held that the presentation of the appropriation bill by Governor Siminalayi Fubara on 13 December 2023 and its passage by the lawmakers amounted to nullity, following an interim order made by the court on 30 November 30, 2023.
Justice Omotosho, who made an order of injunction restraining Governor Fubara and other defendants from interfering with the state’s assembly led by Martin Amaewhule, held that the passage of the bill into law was a willful breach of the court order.
The judge also stopped the governor or any member of the state executive arm from appointing or reposting any person as a clerk or deputy clerk of the assembly in contravention of the laws governing the Rivers State House of Assembly Service Commission.
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