Rivers Assembly Crisis: Supreme Court Restores Amaewhule as Speaker, Stops Allocation, Sacks LGA Chairmen & Councilors

The Supreme Court on Friday 28^th of February 2025 affirmed the Rivers House of Assembly led by Mr. Martin Amaewhule as the authentic and legally constituted lawmaking body in the state. A five-member panel of justices led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji gave the order in a lead judgement read by Justice Emmanuel Agim. The apex court also restrained the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) from further releasing budgetary allocations to Rivers until a valid Appropriation Act is passed by a lawfully constituted house of assembly.  In a unanimous judgment, the panel ordered that Amaewhule and the other 26 members of the assembly, who were alleged to have defected, should be allowed to resume legislative duties unhindered. The Supreme Court further ordered that all members of the House of Assembly are to resume normal legislative business without any hindrance to any members. Justice Agim condemned the conduct of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, who he said chose to destroy the government of Rivers and resort to acting unlawfully by pulling down the house of assembly owing to his fear that there were moves to impeach him. The apex court set aside the earlier judgment of the Court of Appeal, in which the appellate court held that the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction on cases relating to funds belonging to Rivers. The panel equally awarded a cost of N5 million against Fubara and the Government of Rivers to be paid to the Rivers House of Assembly and Amaewhule.  In another judgement, the Supreme Court, on the same day sacked all the Chairmen and Councillors that emerged from the recent Local Government Elections that held in Rivers State. Their sack followed an appeal that was brought before the court by the APC. In a unanimous decision by the Justice Abba-Aji-led panel, the apex court vacated the November 21, 2024, judgement of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which validated the election of the LG officials. Delivering the lead judgement, Justice Jamilu Tukur held that there was no evidence to establish that condition precedents stipulated by section 150(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022, was met before the election was conducted by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commissioners, RSIEC. Therefore, the apex court restored an earlier verdict of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which barred the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from releasing voters register to the RSIEC for the conduct of the LG polls. It maintained that there was no evidence that INEC carried out a review of the voters register, at least 90 days before the election was held. It was the position of the apex court that the Rivers LG polls was conducted in clear violation of the Electoral Act, adding that notice of the election and continuous review of the voters register, was not done as required by the law. It will be recalled that a special panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Onyekachi Otisi had held that the high court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain suit against the Rivers State LG elections.