Rivers State government and the state House of Assembly were yesterday locked in a war of words over implementation of the Supreme Court judgement, especially as it concerns the presentation of 2025 budget.
While the Assembly accused Governor Siminalayi Fubara of frustrating all aspects of the implementation of the judgement, the state government challenged the lawmakers to reconvene, so the budget could be presented before them
Speaking in Port Harcourt yesterday, the Chairman, House Committee on Information and spokesperson of the House, Dr. Enemi Alabo George, challenged the governor to produce the acknowledged copy of the letter he sent to the House.
George said: “ Last week, we were told that on his way to Ogoni for a programme, the governor made a stopover at the gate of the House of Assembly Quarters to grant an interview to the press.
“In that interview, he claimed that he had sent a letter to the House of Assembly indicating his intention to visit and present the appropriation bill, a claim we found rather astonishing as no such letter was received by the House of Assembly.
“His aides later alleged that they forwarded a letter through whatsapp to some members of the House, which was also awkward, unprofessional and embarrassing.
“As I speak, the social media space is awash with stories about a purported letter from the governor to the House of Assembly expressing his intention to visit the House to present the appropriation bill for the year 2025.
“Nothing can be farther from the truth. We want to state categorically that there is no such letter before the House of Assembly nor any of its staff. We challenge the governor and his aides to produce an acknowledgement copy of such a letter or any evidence that such a letter was sent or received by the House of Assembly.
‘’It is absolutely untrue and unfortunate. The general public must, as a matter of importance, ignore such claim.
“It is now very obvious that if at all there was such a letter, the intended recipient was not the legislature, but the public, and the clear intention was to play to the gallery, whip up public sentiment, demonise the House of Assembly and set the public against us. This is demeaning, denigrating and perilously unfortunate.”
He claimed that the governor frustrated all the efforts of the House to work with him to resolve the lingering crisis immediately after the Supreme Court judegment, especially as regards budget presentation.
“Recall after the recent Supreme court judgement on the budget of our state, it became absolutely necessary for the governor to present the appropriation bill to the legislature for consideration and passage.
“Also recall that immediately after the judgement, this House wrote to the governor, calling on him to immediately present the budget for speedy consideration.
“It was our hope that by March 15, 2025, we would have concluded the process of passing the appropriation bill into law, so as to give us enough time to approach the federal government to release funds meant for our state which have been seized by the judgement of the Supreme Court.
“This we did in the interest of our dear state and in pursuit of peace, recognizing that no government can function optimally without a harmonious co-existence between the executive and the legislature
“This letter was rejected and the staff of the House of Assembly who attempted to deliver the mails were brutalised at the gate of Government House and sent back. undeterred by this, the House resorted to use a courier service to deliver the mail. The governor did not heed to our call, nor did he demonstrate any intention to.’’
But replying the Assembly last night, the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, said: “Far from it. On March 7 when we got the CTC, we wrote the Assembly. The Assembly feigned ignorance of the letter we wrote, that they never saw it.
“We wrote another one and mentioned that we’re coming on the 12th, which was on a Wednesday, they hurriedly ended their sitting, locked us out and ran away.
“We wrote again and that was on March 13, only to hear that as soon as they received the letter, they are going to adjourn sine dine.
“We are hoping now that in a normal situation and when things are like this, what you discover is that, when a House, whether national or state adjourns sine dine and there is an emergency, the House reconvenes.
“We would expect that our assembly members who are truly representatives of their constituencies should reconvene and address this issues.
“This is because, if they don’t sit and address the budget the Supreme Court directed we present to them, it will be that they are against the decision of Supreme Court which is like a constitutional stalemate and that will not be in the interest of anybody.”
