By Edith Nwapi
GOVERNOR Siminalayi Fubara on Friday prayed the Court of Appeal to set-aside the judgment that barred the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from releasing monthly allocations to Rivers State.
The governor, through his counsel, Yusuf Ali, SAN, prayed a three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Justice Hamma Barka, to vacate the high court order which he said was issued in bad faith.
He urged the appellate court to allow his appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/1303/2024, and nullify adverse orders that Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court made against the state in the judgment she delivered on Oct. 30.
Fubara’s plea came on a day the Justice Barka-led panel consolidated five other appeals that arose from the said judgment of the high court.
The appeals were marked: 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 Fubara, other appellants in the matter are the Rivers State Government, the Accountant-General of Rivers State and Zenith Bank Plc.
The lower court had restrained the CBN from further allowing the Rivers 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 Martins Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers House of Assembly.
Defendants in the matter are the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF).
Others are Fubara, the Accountant-General of Rivers; Rivers Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC; Chief Judge of Rivers, Hon. Justice S.C. Amadi; Chairman of RSIEC, retired Justice Adolphus Enebeli and the Government of Rivers.
The appellants, through their respective counsel, urged the appellate court to allow their appeal.
Similarly, the Martin 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’s judgment.
After all the parties adopted their briefs of argument, the panel reserved its judgment till a date that would be communicated to the parties.
The factional members of the Rivers 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 gov. Fubara refused to comply with an order of court that directed him to represent the 2024 Appropriation Bill of the state, before them.
Gov. Fubara had insisted that the Amaewhule-led group had since ceased to be lawmakers in the state.
He alleged that, having defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which sponsored their election, to the All Progressives Congress, APC. (NAN)
