Percy Onyeka
A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has struck out a suit seeking to restrain the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara from presenting afresh the 2024 Budget before the Martin Amaewhule-led lawmakers.
The suit brought before the court by the lawmaker representing Bonny Constituency in the House, Victor Jumbo and eight others under the aegis of Rivers Elders seek to declare the peace agreement brokered by President Bola Tinubu unconstitutional.
The other claimants are Senator Bennett Birabi, Senator Andrew Uchendu, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, Rear Admiral O. P Fingesi, Ann Kio-Briggs and Emmanuel Deinma.
The suit also seeks to restrain the 27 lawmakers said to be loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, from parading and functioning as lawmakers based on their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress, as well as restraining Fubara from re-appointing the nine commissioners who resigned their positions.
When the matter came up for motion for a substitute to some parties who are yet to be served the process on Tuesday, Presiding Judge, Justice Chiwendu Nworgu, did not allow the motion but delivered a ruling declining jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
Nworgu cited Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja which nullified the activities of the Edison Ehie-led faction of the Assembly and thereby struck out the suit.
Speaking to newsmen outside the courtroom, one of the lawyers to the claimant, Emmanuel Rukari, expressed disappointment over the position of the court, saying the ruling suggests that the judiciary is not the hope of the common man.
Rukari stated, “If you ask me as a lawyer from My Lord’s ruling, it will seem that he has delved into matters for which parties have not fully been served.
“All we came to court to do this morning is to ask for an ex parte order for substituted service because most of the parties have been served, some others we haven’t been able to serve them.
“That is why we came to court for an ex parte application to enable us to serve the remaining parties, only for him (judge) to delve into the jurisdiction where nobody on the other side had come in to oppose or to challenge his jurisdiction.
“He has also gone ahead to cite the case of Omotosho which was delivered within the week. I don’t know if there is a Certified True Copy to that effect which he looked into because we spent over an hour waiting for his ruling when he excused himself and went in.
“So it is likely that he may have called every Tom, Dick and Harry to help out with what to say. It is rather embarrassing I will say that we have gotten ourselves to this level where the judiciary is no longer the hope for the common man.”
Continuing, he said, “But as it were. We will further the course of justice. We will go back home and talk with our clients to see what their mindset is and then advise them appropriately and then we will know what to do next.”
Last week, some elders in Rivers State filed a motion ex parte urging the court to stop Fubara from presenting the 2024 budget afresh to the state House of Assembly.
The governor had in December presented an N800bn 2024 budget to a faction of the Assembly, comprising four lawmakers. Following the passage of the budget by the lawmakers, Fubara subsequently signed the budget into law. Meanwhile, the Rivers Assembly became factionalised following a move by 27 lawmakers loyal to ex-governor Nyesom Wike to impeach Fubara.
Agency Report
