Newscenter Media News For months, Rivers State has been gripped by a political crisis that has divided its House of Assembly into two warring factions. But the recent Supreme Court ruling on the matter has done little to resolve the tensions—despite celebrations in some quarters.
On Monday, human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today to clarify what the ruling actually meant. He dismissed claims that the Supreme Court had ruled on the legitimacy of Martin Amaewhule as Speaker, stressing that the appeal was withdrawn by Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s legal team before any substantive ruling was made.
“When an appeal is dismissed not on merit but on the basis of withdrawal by the appellant, the question of celebration doesn’t arise,” Falana stated.
“The governor of Rivers State instructed his lawyers to withdraw the appeal on the grounds that it had become an academic exercise. In other words, the issues are no longer alive, so why waste the time of the court?”
The legal battle stemmed from the 2024 budget proposal, which was passed by the faction led by Victor Oko-Jumbo, a lawmaker aligned with Governor Fubara.
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The rival group, led by Amaewhule and backed by former governor Nyesom Wike, challenged the legitimacy of the process. However, with the budget already passed into law, Fubara’s team saw no reason to continue litigation and opted to withdraw the appeal.
A five-man panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, then dismissed the case based on this withdrawal—nothing more, nothing less.
The crisis in the Rivers State House of Assembly began in 2023 when over 25 lawmakers loyal to Wike defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). This mass defection sparked a political standoff, with Fubara aligning himself with the Oko-Jumbo-led group while rejecting the Amaewhule faction.
Falana argued that the defecting lawmakers had, in effect, lost their seats. “By decamping from the PDP to the APC, the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly forfeited their positions, as their seats were declared vacant,” he asserted.
Despite the ongoing tension, Falana pointed out that under the law, just three members of the Assembly can carry out legislative functions—except in cases involving impeachment. This raises fresh questions about the legitimacy of decisions taken by either faction.
While the Supreme Court ruling may have been misinterpreted by some as a victory for the Amaewhule-led faction, the real battle over the leadership of the House remains unresolved. With Rivers State still politically fractured, the next moves by Governor Fubara, the Assembly factions, and their political backers could determine the state’s governance in the coming months.
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