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We’re Already Preparing 2025 Budget, Pro-Wike Lawmakers Are Gone, Says Fubara
The Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, on Wednesday, said his administration has started the process of preparing the 2025 budget.
The governor also dismissed the threat by the Martin Amaewhule-led faction of the state House of Assembly that he should present the 2024 budget again, saying that having defected to the All Progressives Congress from the Peoples Democratic Party platform on which they got election, their seats remained vacant.
Fubara said this when he received on a solidarity visit, the leadership structure, critical stakeholders, opinion leaders, women and youths of Etche and Omuma Local Government Areas, led by Ogbakor Etche, the apex socio-cultural organisation of Etche Ethnic Nationality Worldwide, at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
In a statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Nelson Chukwudi, and sent to newsmen, the governor described the recent ranting of the Amaewhule faction as noise-making from delusional folks.
He urged the “25 former lawmakers” to wake up from their slumber, adding that the ship of governance in the state was sailing smoothly.
The lawmakers loyal to the former governor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, had been having issues with Fubara over the political control of the state.
After an unsuccessful attempt to oust the governor, resulting in the demolition of the Assembly quarters, the lawmakers announced their defection to the APC, a move the state PDP latched on to declare their seats vacant.
A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, the state capital, granted an interim injunction restraining the pro-Wike lawmakers from parading themselves as legislators in the state.
However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, on July 4, affirmed Amaewhule and 24 other lawmakers as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Holding a session at the state Legislative Quarters on Monday, the court-reinstated lawmakers asked Fubara to re-present the 2024 budget to the Assembly and gave him a one-week ultimatum.
The government, in a swift move, approached the court to restrain the state Chief Judge and others from recognising the Amaewhule-led Assembly, while it also appealed the judgment of the Appeal Court at the Supreme Court.
Foreclosing the idea of presenting the 2024 budget again, Fubara said his administration had commenced preparing details of the 2025 Appropriation Bill, with priority placed on education, healthcare and agriculture.
“Let me assure you that agriculture is an area that we have promised the very special and peace-loving people of Rivers State that our 2025 budget, which we have already started preparing, will address.
“Don’t bother about those people that are delusional. They think we are still sleeping. Let me tell you people so that they can hear anywhere they are.
“I wanted to help them, sincerely because I know them. And I have said it before, these are people that I have helped. I paid their children’s school fees. I paid their house rent. So, I wanted to help them.
“We all knew what happened when they crossed (defected), and how did they cross? Because of our God, for them to make that mistake, they crossed. They are gone, and they are gone. Now, let me tell you: when I wanted to help them, I accepted to help them because we are all one. We disagree to agree as it is said,” he said.
He added, “They thought they were smart. What is holding them is the declaration of their seats vacant as done on December 13, 2023. We are not doing any budget to nullify that decision. It is what will send them to their villages.
“As I am talking to you, I have started preparing my budget for 2025, which I am going to present very soon. And, in that budget, my key areas will be education, healthcare and agriculture.”
Fubara said the three priority areas would ensure that even if more roads were constructed, emphasis would be placed on quality healthcare services for the people of the state.
“Our children need to go to quality schools. Even if they can’t go to private schools, let them go to the public ones that have standards. We need to go to good health facilities owned by the government and get standard healthcare services.
“Even if we cannot afford those private hospitals, when you go to the public ones, you can get the same services with qualified professionals. That is our thinking.
“And when we get to the issue of agriculture, it will address the issue of unemployment. When we start engaging our youths, they won’t have time to be involved in crime. So, our thinking is to secure and protect our state,” he added.
He reiterated that he was fighting nobody as insinuated, adding that being loyal did not mean losing one’s liberty, sense of discretion and doing what was right.
“I want to assure you of one thing: we are not fighting anybody. We appreciate what God has used people to also do in our lives. But, we are not going to rule (govern) this state on our bent knees. We will rule standing this way I am standing.
“If it is only being on our knees to rule that is the way that they will see us as being loyal, then, I will pack my few things that I have here, and go and relax in my house comfortably, because it will be a disaster, not just to me but to everyone in the state and even my generation.
“So, I will continue to stand tall and stand on the side of the truth. Let me thank the President General (of Ogbakor Etche) for bringing your people, the great people of Etche and Omuma together to come and pay us a solidarity visit,” he said.
Fubara urged the people of Etche Nation to sustain their support for his administration because its vision was clear and encompassing to advance the well-being of all Rivers people.
He promised to work with the Nigeria Police to resolve the issue of herdsmen attacks on farmlands and farmers in the area, including the issue of illegal dredging activities.
The Punch
A former Acting Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Anamekwe Nwabuoku, who is standing trial for alleged misappropriation of ₦1.96 billion, has appealed to the Federal High Court in Abuja to grant him time to negotiate a settlement with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Nwabuoku, who is facing a nine-count charge, made the request after EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho, SAN, informed the court that the prosecution was ready to proceed with five additional witnesses.
Although he was represented at the hearing by his lawyer, Isidore Udenko, the defendant personally addressed the court, stating that he had hired a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to facilitate an out-of-court settlement with the anti-graft agency.
Udenko noted that the trial had commenced only after the defendant’s previous attempt to reach an agreement with the EFCC fell through.
Immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, has stated that the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu is planning to tarnish his reputation because of his 2031 Presidential ambition.
Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Monday, el-Rufai alleged that Ribadu is collaborating with Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to destroy his image
“This project of destroying Nasir el-Rufai is Nuhu Ribadu’s conception. He is the architect and builder of that project. He is the one working with Uba Sani to implement it. So far, it has been frustrating for them,” el-Rufai said.
“Somebody wants to destroy my reputation. Why? Nuhu Ribadu wants to be president in 2031. He has to eliminate every northerner that he thinks is on the radar.”
Following the revelation by former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida in his book, “A Journey in Service” that the 1966 coup was not an Igbo coup as alleged, Igbo apex group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on Sunday, February 23, has demanded an apology and N10 trillion as compensation from President Bola Tinubu to the Igbos.
In his book, Babangida revealed that the primary objective of the coup plotters was to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison and install him as Prime Minister. He emphasized that the involvement of officers from different ethnic backgrounds, including non-Igbo officers such as Major Adewale Ademoyega, Captain Ganiyu Adeleke, and Lieutenants Fola Oyewole and Olafimihan, further invalidates the claim that it was an Igbo-driven coup.
Additionally, some senior Igbo officers were also victims of the coup, such as Lt-Col. Arthur Chinyelu Unegbe, who was executed by fellow officer Major Chris Anuforo. This further weakens the argument that the coup was designed to serve Igbo interests.
Furthermore, Babangida pointed out that the coup was ultimately crushed by Major John Obienu, an officer of Igbo extraction, reinforcing the argument that it was not an ethnic uprising but rather a failed military intervention with specific political objectives.
Reacting, Ohanaeze noted that the story surrounding the coup at the time, unleashed disastrous repercussions on the Igbo people, which ultimately led to the cataclysmic horrors of the Biafra War.
In a statement by the Deputy National President of the Ohanaeze faction, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, the group noted that the apology and compensation had become necessary due to the ”staggering loss of life, with approximately three million Igbo—predominantly innocent women and children—slaughtered during the war.”
It stated that the revelations by IBB would compel Nigerians to confront the alleged ‘’stark injustices perpetrated against the Igbo people.”
The statement added that the demand for ten trillion naira in reparations remained steadfast, stressing that the figure was not arbitrary but a symbolic recognition of the ‘’huge losses the Igbo people had endured since the creation of Nigeria.”
The statement read:
“The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, extends its profound appreciation to General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) for his remarkable courage in officially declaring that the January 1966 coup was unequivocally not an Igbo coup.
“This pivotal acknowledgement is not merely a correction of historical nomenclature but a significant moment in our collective pursuit of justice and reconciliation, signalling a potential end to the historical vindictiveness and cruelty that have been pervasive in Federal Government policies towards the Igbo Nation.
“His forthright exemption of the Igbo from the egregious classification as enemies of the Northern region in the aftermath of the coup is both timely and necessary, even if it arrives decades later.
“The mislabeling of the January 1966 coup has unleashed disastrous repercussions upon the Igbo people, most tragically culminating in the July 1966 counter-coup, which decimated a military Head of State of Igbo descent.
“The staggering loss of life, with approximately three million Igbos—predominantly innocent women and children—slaughtered during this conflict, continues to reverberate through our collective consciousness.
“Furthermore, even in the post-Biafra era, the Igbo Nation continues to grapple with systemic injustices, evidenced by acute marginalisation that leaves us with the smallest representation of states within the Nigerian federation.
“The political conspiracies designed to deny the Igbo the rights to ascend to the highest office in the land—Nigeria’s Presidency—the chronic economic neglect symbolised by the closure of the Calabar seaport, the inoperative state of several ports in Igbo land, the implementation of a discriminatory quota system, and the conspicuous absence of functional international airports in the Southeast starkly illustrate the Federal Government’s long-standing policy of exclusion.
“In light of these egregious injustices and the deliberate neglect exhibited by successive administrations, Ohanaeze Ndigbo hereby restates its demands, as articulated previously during the Justice Oputa-led Judicial Commission for the Investigation of Human Rights Violations Panel in 1999.
“We assert that the Nigerian Federal Government, under General Yakubu Gowon, conducted indiscriminate and unjustified bombardments in Igbo territory during the Nigeria-Biafra War, resulting in overwhelming loss of life. These historical realities establish an irrefutable case for the reparations we seek.
“The present Federal Government, led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, must recognise this moment as an opportunity to extend a public and unequivocal apology on behalf of previous military regimes. Our demand for ten trillion naira in reparations remains steadfast.
“This figure is not arbitrary but a symbolic recognition of the indelible losses the Igbo people have endured. The time has come for true acknowledgement of these historical wrongs, which can only be rectified through both reparations and sincere apologies.”
Source: LIB
