The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) has assured that Rivers State will continue to receive its federal allocations, despite the ongoing legal battle over the state’s financial entitlements.
According to Bawa Mokwa, Director of Press and Public Relations at the OAGF, the office will adhere to court orders regarding the disbursement of federal allocations to Rivers State. “We are going to obey court order. Since there is a notice of appeal, the notice of appeal has overridden the earlier court judgment. So far, it is a court order that we will obey; if there is a notice of appeal, Rivers will be paid,” Mokwa said.
This development comes after a Federal High Court ruling on October 30, 2024, directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to withhold further monthly allocations to Rivers State. The court ruled that Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s presentation of the 2024 budget to a four-member House of Assembly was unconstitutional.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, who delivered the judgment, stated that since January 2024, allocations received and spent by the state were based on an illegitimate budget, describing it as a “constitutional aberration”.
The Rivers State Government has since filed a notice of appeal against the ruling, expressing optimism that the Appeal Court would upturn the judgment. According to the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, the pointers to the anticipated judgment were glaring, adding that they were unperturbed as they had already instituted an appeal against the Federal High Court’s judgment.
