Court reserves judgment in suit seeking to stop Fubara from spending Rivers funds

A federal high court in Abuja on Friday dismissed all objections by the Rivers government against the hearing of a suit seeking to stop Siminalaye Fubara, the governor, from having access to state funds.

Joyce Abdulmalik, the presiding judge, dismissed applications by the Rivers state government and other defendants seeking to stay proceedings, pending the hearing and the determination of an appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/1197/2024.

The Rivers government had objected to the hearing of the suit in Abuja but was turned down by the court.

However, the state government approached the court of appeal for intervention.

Abdulmalik described the application for a stay of proceedings as “frivolous, vexatious, unwarranted, and mischievous”.

Thereafter, the judge reserved judgment in the suit to a date that would be communicated to parties.

In July, the Rivers house of assembly and Martin Amaewhule, the factional speaker, loyal to Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), instituted the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/984/24 against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and nine others.

They listed the CBN, Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) as first to fourth defendants.

Others are Fubara, accountant-general (AG) of Rivers, Rivers Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), chief judge (CJ) of Rivers, chairman of RSIEC, and government of Rivers state as the fifth to tenth defendants, respectively.

The assembly led by Amaewhule sought an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the CBN, the commercial banks, and the AGF from honouring any financial instruction issued by Fubara regarding the state’s funds.

However, another faction of the state assembly led by Oko Jumbo filed a notice to change counsel on August 6.

The Jumbo-led assembly, loyal to Fubara, had told the court that Amaewhule was not the lawful speaker after his seat was declared vacant on December 13, 2023, following his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

However, the application for a change of counsel was also dismissed by the court.