The Court of Appeal, Abuja division, on Thursday affirmed Martin Amaewhule as the legal Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, in a unanimous judgment, dismissed the appeal filed by the Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara, for lacking in merit.

The appellate court upheld the January 22 judgment of the Federal High Court, delivered by Justice James Omotosho, which nullified the 2024 Rivers State budget on the grounds that it was not presented before members of the State Assembly as required by law.

The court admonished Fubara for not adhering to the rule of law in his actions.

The court held that Fubara’s decision to present the 2024 Rivers State Appropriation Bill to only four out of 31 members of the Assembly constituted a gross violation of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

The appellate court also determined that the withdrawal of the counter-affidavit Fubara initially filed to challenge a suit instituted by the Amaewhule-led lawmakers to be recognised as valid members of the Rivers State House of Assembly indicated his agreement with the claims filed against him.

Recall that the Rivers State Assembly was fractionalised owing to the frosty relationship between Fubara and his predecessor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

In the heat of the fracas, Fubara sidelined the Amaewhule-led 26 members of the House that were loyal to Wike and presented the state’s N800billion 2024 budget before the four lawmakers led by Edison Ehie who had emerged as a factional Speaker of the Assembly.

The Ehie-led faction, which had also declared seats of the Amaewhule-led pro-Wike lawmakers vacant for defecting to the All Progressives Congress, from the Peoples Democratic Party, promptly passed the budget which was quickly assented to by Governor Fubara.

Meanwhile, following the intervention of President Bola Tinubu, both Fubara and Wike signed a peace pact that included the restoration of Amaewhule as as the bonafide Speaker of the State Assembly.

The factional Speaker, Ehie, who had approached the court and was joined as an interested party in the suit, subsequently withdrew all the processes he filed before the court and equally rescinded both his seat and his membership of the Assembly.

Whereas Fubara, in line with terms of the peace deal, withdrew all the processes he filed to challenge the suit, however, the pro-Wike lawmakers only withdrew an impeachment notice they served on him while they declined to terminate their legal action.

While deciding the suit, Justice James Omotosho of the high court held that the budget was invalid as it was not properly presented before the Rivers State House of Assembly as required by the law.

It held that Governor Fubara acted like a tyrant when he demolished the Rivers State Assembly complex and withheld funds standing to the credit of the legislative house.

The court also described as unconstitutional the redeployment of the Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the Rivers State Assembly by Governor Fubara.

Justice Omotosho stressed that the governor lacked the statutory rights to interfere with the operations of the Assembly, adding that he acted in contempt of a subsisting order that barred the parties from taking any steps to overreach the matter that was pending before the court.

Besides, the court held that the National Assembly could not take over the legislative affairs of the state in the absence of the preconditions that were listed under section 11 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

Consequently, the court, among other things, nullified all actions the Rivers Assembly took without the participation of the Amaewhule-led members of the House, which included the presentation of the state appropriation bill.

It issued an order of injunction, restraining Fubara from impeding or frustrating the operations of the Assembly under Amaewhule’s leadership as its speaker.

It ordered the governor to release all funds standing to the credit of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

While upholding the verdict of the lower court, the appellate court held that Fubara conceded to the Amaewhule-led lawmakers when he withdrew all the processes he filed against their suit.

“A party must be consistent in the presentation of its case. A party cannot approbate and reprobate or blow hot and cold at the same time,” the appellate court held.

It held that the orders of the trial court were appropriate given the circumstance of the case, saying the appeal Fubara filed before it amounted to an academic exercise.

Accordingly, it ordered Fubara to pay a cost of N500,000 to each of the Respondents.