Breaking: Court Dismisses Fubara’s Appeal, Affirms Amaewhule as Speaker of Rivers Assembly

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, affirmed Hon. Martin Amaewhule as the authentic Speaker of the Rivers State Assembly.

The appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of Justices, equally validated the Amaewhule-led members of the Assembly as bonafide lawmakers for the state.

While dismissing an appeal that was lodged before it by Governor Siminalaye Fubara, the court upheld a judgement the Federal High Court delivered on January 22, which nullified the 2024 budget of Rivers State on the premise that it was not presented before members of the state assembly that were known to the law.

According to the appellate court, Fubara, shot himself on the foot when he voluntarily withdrew a counter-affidavit he filed to challenge a legal action the Amaewhule-led lawmakers instituted to be recognised as valid members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

The court held that governor Fubara’s decision to present the 2024 Rivers State Appropriation Bill to only four out of 31 members of the Assembly, amounted to a gross violation of section 91 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

It will be recalled that the Rivers State Assembly was fractionalised owing to the frosty relationship between Governor Fubara and his predecessor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike.