Political waters in Rivers were ruffled on Friday when conflicting information emerged on the State Federal Allocation for October. The first information was that based on a Federal High Court order, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation would not release the money. Not long after, another piece of information emerged that the money would be released along with others.

The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) announced on Friday that it halted the disbursement of October revenue payment to Rivers State, citing the Federal High Court judgement. Mr. Bawa Mokwa, the spokesperson for the OAGF, who spoke to journalists on Friday, emphasised that the federal government would respect the court order with due diligence until a contrary order is issued.

In a spate of hours, another statement emerged that the Federal Government has not stopped the disbursement of funds to Rivers State contrary to reports on some online platforms on Friday. Mr. Bawa Mokwa, Director of Press in the office of the Accountant General of the Federation confirmed the development saying, “disbursement of October allocation to states and local governments by FAAC is ongoing.”

The Court of Appeal in Abuja, yesterday, reserved its judgement in the suit filed by the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Siminalayi Fubara, seeking to void the judgement that barred the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from releasing monthly allocations to Rivers State.

A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Hamma Barka reserved judgement on the state government’s appeal against a lower court’s decision stopping the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from releasing the state’s monthly allocations.

Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the state government had filed an appeal to challenge the 30 October judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja. In the challenged suit, the Federal High Court judge, Joyce Abdulmalik, described the disbursement of monthly allocations to the state since January as a clear constitutional breach that must not be allowed.

The Martins Amaewhule-led faction Rivers House of Assembly faction had filed a suit arguing that the Rivers state governor did not comply with the court order, which asked him to represent the 2024 Appropriation Bill to the Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly. This is coming amid the ongoing power tussle and fight for political structure between Governor Fubara and his predecessor, the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nysome Wike.

The judge subsequently barred the CBN, the Accountant General of the Federation, and the state’s bankers – Zenith Bank and Access Bank – from allowing the state government to access funds from the Consolidated Revenue and Federation Account.

In his appeal to the Court of Appeal in the suit marked CA/ABJ/CV/1303/2024, the governor’s team of legal representation asked the panel to nullify the judgement and allow the apex bank to pay the state its allocation, and give the governor’s access to the state account. But the Hon. Amaewhule-led faction asked the court to dismiss the appeals and affirm the Federal High Court judgement.

After the adoption of their briefs, the appellate court reserved the judgement till a date that would be communicated later.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal upturned a High Court judgement by Justice Peter Lifu against the conduct of the Rivers State Local Government Area election which was held on October 5, 2024.

The three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Justice Onyekachi Otisi, ruled that the lower court ruled on the matter outside of its jurisdiction, thereby making its declaration on the local government election void and non-binding.

Six days before the local government election, the high court, following the suit brought before him by the All Progressives Congress (APC), restrained the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing voters’ registers to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC).

The court also restrained the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Department of the State Service (DSS) from providing security for the conduct of the local election and questioned the legality of the election.
Despite the court ruling, the state went ahead to conduct the election, in which the Action Peoples Party (APP) won all the local governments in the state.

Not satisfied by the high court ruling, the state government approached the appellate court to set aside the judgement on grounds that Justice Lifu lacked the necessary jurisdiction to entertain the suit in the first place.

Before the postponement, the court merged a total of five appeals relating to the case into one on Friday.