The Rivers State House of Assembly has given Governor Sim Fubara 48 hours to present the 2025 budget to the lawmakers.
They made this known during plenary in Port Harcourt on Monday with the motion moved by the deputy speaker Dumle Maol.
In his remarks, Speaker Martin Amaewhule further condemned the Fubara’s directive to the heads of Local Government Administration to take charge of the councils, saying it is an illegality and against the Supreme Court’s decision.
The House resolved to go on recess by Friday because they have been working for the past two years nonstop.
Interestingly, there was no mention of the 2024 budget during plenary.
Governor Fubara had on January 2nd, signed a ₦1.1 trillion 2025 Budget into law after presenting it to the Victor Oko-Jumbo-led lawmakers.
But months after, specifically last week, the Supreme Court ordered Martin Amaewhule and the group of lawmakers he is leading to resume sitting as legitimate members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
That move ended months of tussle over the leadership of the Rivers State House of Assembly with two sets of lawmakers laying claim to the legislative body.
However, in their first sitting after the historic judgement, the Rivers State Assembly asked Fubara to present the bill he had christened “Budget of Inclusive Growth and Development,” adding a fresh layer of twist to the political events in the oil-rich state.
Apart from ordering Amaewhule and other lawmakers to begin sitting, the Supreme Court had also mandated the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to withhold allocations for Rivers until it purges itself of what the court describes as flagrant disobedience to court orders.
It equally nullified the local government elections in Rivers State which were conducted last year.
Following the verdict, Fubara called for fresh council polls in the state, promising to obey the judgement of the apex court.
“Furthermore, given the outlawing of caretaker arrangements in the local government system, I hereby direct the Heads of Local Government Administration to immediately take over the administration of the 23 local government councils pending the conduct of fresh elections by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission,” the governor said in a state broadcast on Sunday.
He asked the “outgoing local government chairmen to formally hand over the levers of power to the Heads of Local Government Administration by Monday, 3rd March 2025”.
