Port Harcourt
Siminalayi Fubara, governor of River State has presented the 2024 appropriation proposal to only five members of the State House of Assembly.
Fubara reportedly presented the budget at the state’s government house hours after the assembly complex was demolished.
The appropriation bill was presented two days after 27 members of the assembly announced their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Amongst many political tussles in the State was the burning of the assembly complex by unknown persons.
The governor who was accompanied by the secretary to the state government, Tammy Danagogo, and other members of his cabinet, presented an N800 billion appropriation bill for the 2024 fiscal year to the five-member assembly.
The speaker, Edison Ehie, who presided over the sitting declared vacant the seats of 27 legislators who defected to the APC during the sessions.
The defected lawmakers who are believed to be loyal to the immediate past governor of the state and current minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) initiated impeachment against the governor a day after the fire incident at the assembly complex.
The then majority leader Edison, known to be the Fubara’s ally, was removed in the botched attempt to impeach the governor, while Fubara was also accused of masterminding the inferno as part of efforts to frustrate his impeachment.
Ehie was elected speaker in October by a faction of the House after the attempt to impeach Fubara failed.
On December 12, the state high court in Port Harcourt delivered a judgement in favour of Ehie as the authentic speaker of the state’s legislature.
The presiding judge, M.W Danagogo, ordered Martin Amaewhule and Dumle Maol, who claim to be the House leaders, to refrain from parading themselves or meddling with Ehie’s duties as speaker of the state House of Assembly.
The court also warned against forceful entry into the assembly complex using thugs or police.
