Fubara signs Rivers 2025 budget — 72 hours after presenting it to assembly

Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers state, has signed the 2025 appropriation bill into law.

Fubara signed the N1.18 trillion appropriation bill at the government house in Port Harcourt on Thursday.

Speaking after the signing of the budget, Fubara said his administration is no longer concerned with the division in the Rivers assembly.

“We have one assembly and that assembly is headed by Honourable Victor Oko-Jumbo. As far as I’m concerned, we have moved on,” he said.

On Monday, the governor presented the budget proposal to a four-member Rivers state house of assembly led by Victor Oko-Jumbo.

A total of N462,254,153,418 was allocated to recurrent expenditure and N678,088,433,692 for capital projects. This brings the total appropriation to N1,188,962,739,932.

The signing of the appropriation bill comes barely 72 hours after the governor presented it to lawmakers.

The recent development is a repeat of the presentation and signing of the 2024 Rivers budget proposal.

In December 2023, Fubara presented the state’s N800 billion budget estimate for 2024 to five-member of the River assembly led by Edison Ehie.

Barely twenty-four hours later, the Rivers governor signed the 2024 appropriation bill into law.

Subsequently, Ehie resigned as a lawmaker and was appointed as chief of staff to the governor.

Ehie’s resignation meant that the state lawmakers loyal to Fubara were reduced to four.

Oko-Jumbo took over as the speaker of the faction of the Rivers assembly loyal to Fubara.

The majority of the Rivers assembly lawmakers led by Martin Amaewhule are loyal to Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT).

Since 2023, the assembly has been factionalised following the feud between Fubara and Wike.