The Rivers State Government has clarified that its case challenging the leadership of the State House of Assembly and the membership of the members who defected in December 2023 remains before the Supreme Court.
Edison Ehie, the Chief of Staff to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, made the clarification in a Facebook post following a recent Supreme Court ruling.
He explained that the decision on Monday, February 10, 2025, was related to an appeal concerning the 2024 budget and the ruling of the Appeal Court, which directed Governor Fubara to re-present the budget before the Martins Amaewhule-led Assembly.
“The 2024 budget became spent on the 31st December of the 2024 fiscal year. The appeal is of no useful purpose in this year 2025, which has its budget,” Ehie wrote, stressing that the budget-related appeal had become “purely academic.”
He added, “The only reasonable thing left to do in the circumstances was to withdraw the appeal and have it dismissed. It would be most unwise to belabour the Honourable Court with academic appeals without any practical or utilitarian value.”
Ehie also pointed out that the appeal in question was unrelated to the defection of Martin Chike and 26 other members from the PDP to the APC in December 2023. According to Ehie, “Their seats in the Rivers State House of Assembly became vacant.”
“This appeal that was withdrawn today has nothing to do with the seats of Martin Chike Amaewhule and his 26 friends in the Rivers State House of Assembly,” he emphasized, urging the public not to be misled by any “misleading propaganda” from the defected members.