Transcription
From Lagos, let's take you to River State, where another story is developing. The River State House of Assembly has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, demanding he presents the 2025 appropriation bill. This follows a Supreme Court judgment that halted allocations to the state pending the passage of the appropriation law. We have more details in this report.
The house tasked its Judiciary committee with analyzing the Supreme Court's ruling and presenting its report. Committee chairman Dum Ma made several recommendations. Chief amongst them was the urgent need for the governor to submit the budget without further delay. The assembly emphasized that failure to do so within 48 hours could plunge the state into a financial deadlock. Mr. [Name unclear], "We are resolving that, in the interest of the state, this house importantly, like I said earlier, should immediately give the governor 48 hours to enable him present the appropriation bill as pronounced by the Supreme Court. I think for now, those were important areas where the committee wished to draw attention to. We don't want to be responsible for holding our state back. We must call on the government immediately to bring the 2025 appropriation bill so that the house can consider it, and River State can move forward."
Meanwhile, the house rejected the governor's directive to the 23 council chairmen to hand over, arguing that heads of local government administration are not legally permitted to run the third tier of government. With this apparent leadership vacuum, the assembly's plan to amend relevant laws could further delay the governor's proposal to conduct fresh local government elections. "The attention of this house has been drawn to the lacuna in our laws, more specifically the River State Local Government Law and the River State Independent Electoral Commission Law. The onus is now on this House of Assembly to review these two laws and come up with amendments that will make these laws consistent with the Electoral Act. This will be a prerequisite to any plan to conduct further local government elections in River State."
As tensions build, the lawmakers have resolved to proceed on a three-month recess starting the 7th of March 2025. Their next step is transmitting these resolutions to the executive, hoping for a swift and positive response. TC News correspondent Uko joins me now on the news for more updates.
Uch, thank you for joining us at this time. What is the atmosphere in River State as we speak? What feelers are you getting from the two camps?
The atmosphere in River State is calm, very calm, I should say. As of yesterday evening and a couple of days ago, everyone was expecting that by Monday, the state would be plunged into a fresh round of violence, as was witnessed in the wake of the local government election and the appointment of caretaker committees some time ago. But many have said that the governor's broadcast yesterday has gone a long way to ease the tension. Many had expected a breakdown when or if the council chairmen went to their offices to resume as local government chairmen. But of course, the governor's directive came yesterday ordering them to step aside and hand over, effectively putting a stop to predictions of violence that anyone was expecting today, being Monday. But generally, the atmosphere in River State is calm. It is as I said, from the politicians who are engaging in a war of words over the implication of the Supreme Court judgment and interpretation, and what the next step for the state should be. Generally speaking, specifically about the residents, the generality of the people, the atmosphere is very calm.
Our correspondent Uko, thank you very much for that update for us in Port Harcourt, River State.