The Supreme Court has given reason for the restoration of the Martins Amaewhule-led Rivers State House of Assembly.
The apex court last Friday ruled that the 27 lawmakers that dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives (APC) remain members of the House.
A five-member panel of justices led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji declared that that the Amaewhule-led Assembly was the authentic and legally constituted House in the state.
The Supreme Court also restrained the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) from further releasing budgetary allocations to Rivers State government until Governor Siminilayi Fubara present the 2025 budget to the lawmakers who are loyalists of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
In the 62-page Certified True Copy of its judgment obtained by journalists on Thursday in Abuja, the apex court insisted that the Assembly must be formed as stated in the 1999 Constitution.
Justice Emmanuel Agim, who signed the judgement, held that there was no evidence that the 27 lawmakers defected from the PDP to the APC.
He pointed out that the constitution does not support Fubara’s decision to recognize only four members as the authentic House of Assembly.
The document read: “What is clear from the above concurrent findings is that the eighth respondent (Fubara) started the prevention of the sittings of the Rivers State House of Assembly constituted by the number of members as prescribed by Section 96 of the 1999 Constitution long before the issue of the remaining 27 members defecting to another political party arose.
“The doctrine of necessity cannot be invoked to justify the continued existence of a deliberately contrived illegal or unconstitutional status quo… It applies to genuine situations that were not contemplated in the provisions of the Constitution or any law, which situations require the taking of some legitimate extra-constitutional or extra-legal actions to protect the public interest.
“A government cannot be said to exist without one of the three arms that make up the Government of a State under the 1999 Constitution… In this case, the Executive arm of the Government has chosen to collapse the Legislature to enable him to govern without the Legislature as a despot. As it is, there is no government in Rivers State.”
Source: Ripples
