Peter Obi Criticises Court Ruling Halting Rivers State Funds, Calls for Reversal

The Labour Party leader and the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, has decried the recent court ruling withholding the release of funds to the state as disturbing and should be reversed.

This was as Caretaker Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tony Okocha, said that the intervention of the elders and other stakeholders in the state was coming too late.

But members of the Rivers State House of Assembly members loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara gave called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a bye-election to fill the 27 vacant seats of alleged defected members in the House.

Obi in a statement by his media aide, Ibrahim Umah, writing on his X handle on Friday, stated that the impact of such a ruling on the people who are the owners of the money in question is far-reaching and worth revisiting.

 According to Obi, “In my political trajectory, I have consistently refrained from name-calling or engaging in personal disputes, choosing to focus on issues that directly impact the masses, particularly the suffering poor of Nigeria. 

”Despite the national attention the Rivers State crisis has gained, I have largely stayed away from matters specific to a state, but a recent court judgement halting allocations to the state—and the resulting consequences—demands attention.

“This curious decision now calls upon every well-meaning individual to appeal for its immediate reversal.

“Consider the pensioner struggling to survive on a meager income alongside the health workers, school teachers, civil servants, and everyday citizens whose lives are already marked by severe hardship. How much more can they endure? 

“This latest development risks pushing them even further into distress—even into untimely deaths—by compounding the challenges they face each day.

“As leaders—whether in the Executive, Legislative, or Judicial our decisions, and actions should be guided by a commitment to the less privileged and vulnerable among us. 

‘As we work toward a better future for all, we must genuinely care about the poor and prioritise the well-being of every Nigerian. What we do today should lay the foundation for a new Nigeria that is possible,” Obi stated 

Coming hard on the governor, Okocha described Fubara as ‘Nyesom Wike’s investment”, saying the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) practically lifted the governor from political obscurity. 

Okocha, who stated this on Friday, while addressing a press conference on Abuja, said he was of the opinion that the political crisis in the state could have ended if Fubara had obeyed President Bola Tinubu’s intervention.

When asked for the way out, Okocha insisted that the governor must obey the law of the land, and also represent the 2024 budget before the State House of Assembly. 

On the recent move by elders in the Niger Delta to reconcile the gladiators in the Rivers crisis, Okocha said such a move was already belated.

His words: “I say it is foolishness for anyone to cry when the head is off. There is also this aphorism, that you don’t cry over spilled milk.

“Where have these elders been? Where? The matter is narrowing down, if you ask me; because the only other hurdle to escape is the Supreme Court. 

“What are the elders coming to do at this late hour, if they actually would want to come? What are they coming to do? They are the same people who told the governor, that you are a know-all and do-all, they encouraged the governor to believe that his head was bigger than his pillow.

“They were the ones, they told him, look, your powers are elastic, what can you not do? And the governor agreed to that and today, the Ikwerre man tells you that not everybody that comes to plan your building will be part of the building. 

“No. A lot of them have disappeared into thin air. At the time, they came to counsel the governor against the decision that he signed to. And the governor is on the hot seat. So to say to you that I don’t see that working is way, way too late.

“But I wish. We want peace, Simple thing. See, the only way to bring peace is to follow the law.”

Okocha also advised Fubara to stop his continuous blackmail of Tinubu, Wike and the judiciary over the recent judgement stopping allocation to the state, saying sentiments can never trump facts in the face of the law.

He added: “Wike brought Fubara to where he is today. He lifted him from obscurity to political crescendo. Nobody is suffocating anybody. The fight in Rivers state is between Sim Fubara and Sim Fubara. 

“Sections 120, 121, 122 speak to this issue regarding budget clearly.

“As a political party, the All Progressives Congress, we stand with and by the judgment of the court because it is what will hold sway in the civil society, it is the court, not one man morality.

“We are also using this opportunity to speak against attempts to disparage innocent persons namely; Nyesom Wike, the FCT Minister. In all the cases in court, there are about 32 cases in which he is not a party to any. Why bring in the President?,” he queried.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly, Victor Oko-Jumbo who spoke on behalf of Members loyal to Fubara, said the renewed call became pertinent since the legal impediment stopping INEC hitherto, from conducting the bye-election, has been removed.

 Oko-Jumbo made the call in a statement made available to journalists in Port Harcourt, on Friday.

He said, “It is common public knowledge that Martin Chike Amaewhule and 26 other lawmakers of the Rivers State House of Assembly, on their own accord, defected on December 11, 2023, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), without any justifiable cause.”

 Oko-Jumbo stated that their defection from the PDP which sponsored their election followed the former lawmakers’ failed attempt to impeach Governor Fubara, as the Executive Governor of Rivers State, on October 30, 2023.

He emphasised that: “To frustrate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from conducting a bye-election to fill the vacated seats in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Chike Amaewhule & 26 others filed Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1681/2023 against INEC & 4 others on the 13th day of December, 2023.

“Subsequently, an order of Interlocutory Injunction was secured, restraining INEC from conducting a bye-election to fill the 27 vacant seats in the Rivers State House of Assembly.

“After filing the said suit and securing the order of Interlocutory Injunction, Martin Chike Amaewhule and 26 others began to foot-drag, and did not do anything to diligently prosecute their suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja.”

Oko-Jumbo pointed that “legal suit that Martin Chike Amaewhule and the 26 others pursued, which they used, invariably, as a cover to delay what must necessarily be done.”

He said, “On Wednesday, October 30, 2024, Martin Chike Amaewhule and 26 others, without any reason, discontinued Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1681/2023, and it was struck out accordingly.

“The only impediment to INEC conducting a bye-election to fill the 27 vacant seats in the Rivers State House of Assembly was the order of Interlocutory Injunction restraining INEC from conducting a bye-election.

“Now that Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1681/2023 has been struck out, the order of Interlocutory Injunction is also spent.

“Accordingly, as the Rt. Honourable Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, I call on INEC to forthwith conduct a bye- election to fill the 27 vacant seats in the Rivers State House of Assembly,” he added.

Chuks Okocha, Adedayo Akinwale and Blessing Ibunge 

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