• Women group urges Tinubu to lift Fubara’s suspension
• State High Court announces vacation plans for Judges

The Rivers State Sole Administrator, retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, has cancelled all procurement and tender processes carried out by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) under the suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

In a statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Ibibia Worika, Ibas claimed that the decision was in adherence to the Supreme Court judgment upholding the Appeal Court ruling in Suit No. CA/ABJ/CV/133/2024 and without an Appropriation Law in the state.

Consequently, the Sole Administrator mandated all MDAs that carried out such tender processes for projects in their respective offices to refund such tender fees to the respective contractors immediately, pending the state’s approval of a spending plan, which, he said, they shall be notified in due course.

Mixed reactions have, however, continued to trail Ibas’ decisions and actions barely two weeks after he resumed duty in the state after President Bola Tinubu declared a State of Emergency in the state and suspended the governor, his deputy, Ngozi Odu, and members of the state Assembly.

Many citizens have criticised Ibas’s actions, saying his body language indicates that he is actualising scripts written by the Abuja-based political merchants.

Recall that Ibas also sacked all political appointees under Fubara’s administration last week.

Speaking on the development, a political analyst and former member of the House of Representatives, Ogbonna Nwuke, criticised the Ibas’ decisions and actions, saying he is becoming partisan, noting that it is not good for the assignment the President sent him to do in Rivers State.

MEANWHILE, hundreds of Rivers State women under the aegis of Rivers Women Unite for Sim (RWUS) have urged President Bola Tinubu to lift the suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and other elected officers of the state.

This follows the state government’s cancellation of all pending procurement and tender processes.

The women, who are from across the 23 local councils of the state, convened by Sotonye Toby Fulton, made the call yesterday during their weekly prayer for peace and progress in the state in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

A participant at the prayer session said no war in the state requires a declared state of emergency. They also insisted that the state needs the suspended governor to continue the official work he was elected for.

IN another development, the Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Simeon Chibuzor-Amadi, has announced that the state High Court Judges would embark on an Easter vacation from Monday, April 14, 2025, to Tuesday, April 29, 2025.

This decision, he said, is in line with the provisions of Order 49 Rule 4B of the High Court Civil Procedure Rules 2023.

According to a statement issued by the Chief Registrar, Rivers State High Court, David Dahua-Maduenyi, a designated judge will be available to attend to urgent applications and matters during the vacation period.

The statement assured the public that normal sittings of the High Court will resume on Tuesday, April 29, 2025.