Nigeria’s Federal High Court sitting in Abuja and presided over by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik has restrained the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from further releasing financial allocations to the Rivers State Government pending when a lawful appropriation act is passed by a validly constituted House of Assembly.
The judge issued the order on Wednesday, October 30, in a suit filed by a faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly led by Martins Amaewhule.
Justice Abdulmalik held that the decision by Governor Siminalayi Fubara to present the Rivers State’s 2024 Appropriation Bill to a four-member Assembly, that was not properly constituted, should not be allowed to stand.
Rivers state has been enmeshed in political crisis between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, now the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.