‘We’ll maintain status quo’ — OAGF says Rivers will receive financial allocations

The office of the accountant-general of the federation (OAGF) says the Rivers will receive financial allocations following an appeal by the state government.

Bawa Mokwa, director of press and public relations at the OAGF, spoke TheCable on Saturday.

He said although there had been a court order stopping distribution of allocations to the state, the decision of the appeal court overrides the previous order.

“We are going to obey court orders. Yesterday, after a report that the state would not be paid, the Rivers state government sent a notification of appeal to that effect,” he said.

“So, logically, we are going to obey court orders. The notification depicts that there is a stay of execution, which means we will maintain status quo. It means the state will be given allocation.”

BACKGROUND 

In December 2023, Siminalayi Fubara, Rivers governor, presented an N800 billion budget estimate to the Edison Ehie faction of the house of assembly.

In July, the Rivers house of assembly and Martins Amaewhule, the factional speaker, instituted a suit against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and nine others.

The Amaewhule faction of the house sought an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the CBN, the commercial banks, and the accountant-general of the federation (AGF), from granting any financial instruction from Fubara.

On October 30, a federal high court in Abuja restrained the CBN from disbursing financial allocations to the state government.

The court held that monies from the federation account should not be released to the state pending the passage of a lawful appropriation act by a validly constituted house of assembly.

Joyce Abdulmalik, the presiding judge, delivered the judgment in the suit filed by the Rivers state house of assembly led by Amaewhule.

Abdulmalik held that Fubara was wrong to have presented the state’s 2024 Appropriation Bill to a five-member assembly “that was not properly constituted”.

Dissatisfied by the ruling, Fubara had asked the court of appeal to set aside the order restraining the apex bank from further disbursing financial allocations to the state government.

At the court proceedings on November 22, after all the parties adopted their briefs of argument, the panel reserved its judgment to a date that would be communicated to the parties.