On the day Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court Abuja nullified the N800 billion budget passed by the Edison Ehie-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly signed into law by Governor Siminalayi Fubara, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in same Abuja has ordered all parties in the Rivers Assembly crisis to maintain the status quo.
In a ruling on Monday, Justice Abdulmalik directed the parties not to take further steps, pending the determination of an application that is seeking to stop Fubara from re-presenting the already passed 2024 budget of the state before the house.
Justice Abdulmalik fixed February 28 to hear the application which was brought before the court by six elders of the state. The plaintiffs, led by a member of the Rivers House of Assembly, Victor Okon Jumbo, are: Senator Bennett Birabi, Senator Andrew Uchendu, Rear Admiral O.P. Fingesi, Ann Kio Briggs and Emmanuel Deinma. They maintained that the agreement signed on December 18, 2023, was not only illegal, but amounted to an usurpation, nullification, and undermining of the extant/binding relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
Consequently, they are praying the court to among other things, determine whether President Tinubu, Governor Fubara, and the Rivers State Assembly, have the rights and are entitled to enter into any agreement that has the effect of nullifying or undermining the constitutional/legal potency of the provisions of Section 109 (I) (g) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
