By Michael Chibuzo
On Sunday 29th October, 2023, the Majority Leader of the Rivers House of Assembly, Hon. Edison Ehie led arsonists to burn sections of the Rivers State House of Assembly complex around 10pm following fears that the assembly was set to begin impeachment procedures against Fubara the next day.
On 30th October 2023, the House of Assembly removed Hon. Edison Ehie as Majority Leader through votes by 26 out of 32 lawmakers and suspended him alongside four others for masterminding the burning of the House of Assembly chambers the previous night.
The House of Assembly thereafter on the same day issued an impeachment notice against Gov. Sim Fubara. However, before the end of plenary that day security operatives sent by the governor invaded the assembly complex again and shot sporadically with live bullets and tear gas. The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule and his fellow lawmakers hurriedly left the Assembly premises.
Gov. Fubara later came to the assembly complex with his supporters and declared that the impeachment process initiated by the House of Assembly was null and void.
On that same 30th October, 2023, Hon. Edison Ehie was purportedly elected as factional Speaker of the State Assembly to preside over a 4-man Assembly. Fubara’s Special Adviser, Boniface Onyedi announced the election of the factional speaker and alleged that 26 lawmakers elected Hon. Edison Ehie as Speaker during ‘plenary’ and suspended some members of the HoA including Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule the speaker.
Still on the same 30th October, Fubara issued an executive order 001 dated October 30, 2023 directing that all proceedings and business of Rivers House of Assembly take place inside the government house until the repairs, renovation or reconstruction of the chambers of the Rivers State House of Assembly are completed.
Following the crisis that rocked the State Assembly and Fubara’s creation of his own 4-man assembly inside the Rivers State government house, on 11th December, 2023 the 27 lawmakers led by Amaewhule purportedly defected to the APC.
As the crisis raged, on December 13, 2023, factional Speaker, Hon. Edison Ehie obtained a court order from a Rivers High Court allowing him and his faction made up of four members to be sitting as the Rivers State House of Assembly. Edison Ehie then proceeded to declare seats of Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule and his other colleagues vacant for allegedly defecting to the APC.
On the same December 13th 2023, Fubara presented an N800 billion 2024 budget to the four-member faction led by Edison Ehie. They passed the budget same day and the next day, Fubara signed it into law.
President Bola Tinubu stepped in to broker peace on December 18th, 2023. Consequently, a peace deal between Wike camp and Fubara camp was signed at the State House. Among the agreements reached was that Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule remains the speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly and that Gov. Fubara should represent the 2024 budget to the Amaewhule-led assembly.
On 29th December, Factional Speaker, Edison Ehie wrote to INEC saying he has resigned as a lawmaker. Fubara subsequently appointed him as his Chief of Staff. The cold war continued with Fubara refusing to represent the 2024 budget before the Amaewhule-led Assembly.
Eventually, on May 8, 2024 Fubara declared that there was no House of Assembly in Rivers State. A day later, one of the three lawmakers earlier suspended by the Martin Amaewhule-led Assembly, Hon. Victor Oko Jumbo emerged factional Speaker with the endorsement of Gov. Fubara. On 10th May, 2024 Fubara gazetted the executive order he issued on 30th October 2023 moving sittings of the house of assembly loyal to him to the Government House.
On May 10th, Hon. Jumbo obtained an interlocutory injunction from a Rivers State High Court, restraining Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule and 24 lawmakers from parading themselves as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule and his group appealed the order and court of appeal ruled in their favour saying that Rivers State High Court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the suit and ordered Martin Amaewhule and the 24 members of the House of Assembly to revert to their positions before the restraining order.
Martin Amaewhule and his group took Fubara to court over the 2024 budget he presented to an illegal house of assembly and on 22nd January 2024, an Abuja Federal High Court ruled in their favour and ordered Fubara to represent the budget to the Martin Amaewhule-led assembly. Fubara went on appeal and on 10th October, 2024 the Appeal Court dismissed Fubara’s appeal. Yet Fubara failed to represent the 2024 budget to Martin Amaewhule-led assembly.
Following the failure of Fubara to obey the court of appeal judgment, Martin Amaewhule and 24 lawmakers approached a Federal High Court to compel Fubara to obey the court of appeal judgment. On 30th October, 2024 the Federal High Court ruled in favour of Martin Amaewhule and the 24 lawmakers and restrained the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from further releasing monthly FAAC allocations to the Rivers State Government until Fubara presents the 2024 appropriation bill to Martin Amaewhule-led state assembly.
Fubara proceeded to appeal the FHC judgement at the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal at this point decided to consolidate all the appeals relating to the Rivers crisis before it and eventually dismissed the federal high court judgement freezing release of allocations to Rivers State on the ground the lower court lacked jurisdiction even though it upheld the freezing while ruling based on the merit of the case.
Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule and the 24 lawmakers subsequently lodged an appeal at the Supreme Court against the judgment of the court of appeal on the issue of jurisdiction determined by the lower court and some other issues via cross-appeal. Fubara also cross-appealed the portion of the appeal court judgment allowing the freeze on merit.
It is these various appeals that the Supreme Court on February 28, 2025 delivered a judgment on and among other things, upheld the ruling of the Federal High Court and dismissing the part of the appeal court judgement that earlier struck out Martin Amaewhule’s appeal on grounds of lack of jurisdiction by the federal high court to entertain the matter abinitio.
The major summary of the Supreme Court ruling therefore are as follows:
1. That Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule is the authentic speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
2. That no seat is vacant in the Rivers state house of assembly. All elected lawmakers were ordered to resume sitting.
3. That the presentation of the 2024 budget by Fubara to 4-man assembly led by Edison Ehie in December 2023 was in violation of a subsisting injunction by a federal high court obtained by Martin Amaewhule and his group and therefore the budget was null and void as well as all the actions carried out by the 4-man assembly who the Supreme Court said doesn’t constitute a valid quorum to start with.
4. That the CBN, Accountant-General of the Federation and some banks housing Rivers State accounts should not release funds belonging to Rivers State to the state government until a valid appropriation law that has passed through Martin Amaewhule-led assembly is in place.