Rivers political tussle: Supreme Court puts judgement on hold

The Supreme Court, on Monday, reserved judgement in four separate appeals on the raging political leadership tussles in Rivers.
Uwani Aba-Aji, who led a five-member panel of justices, reserved judgements to a date that would be communicated to parties after taking arguments from lawyers involved in the matters.
The four appeals are the Rivers House of Assembly and others against the Rivers government and nine others.
The second case is between the Rivers House of Assembly and others against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and nine others.
The third case is between the Rivers House of Assembly and others against the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, and nine others.
The fourth matter is between the Rivers State House of Assembly and others against the accountant general of Rivers and nine others.
The cases are in respect of some judgements delivered by the Federal High Court in Abuja that prohibited the release of monthly funds to Rives from the Federation Account and another that barred INEC from releasing voter registers to the state government for the purpose of conducting local government elections, among others.
It will be recalled that Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, had ordered the stoppage of the release of allocations from the federal government to Rivers until the governor presented the budget before the Martin Amaewhule-led House of Assembly members.
However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja upturned the judgement on grounds of grave injustice in the findings and decisions.
Similarly, the Court of Appeal, in another judgement, upturned the judgement of Justice Peter Lifu, also of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which had ruled against the conduct of the October 5, 2024, local government council election in Rivers on the grounds that due process of Rivers State laws on local government elections had not been followed.
At Monday’s sitting, Joseph Daudu SAN represented the camp loyal to the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Nyesom Wike, while Chris Uche SAN led the camp of Mr Fubara.