The National Assembly has described the 11 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) controlled states as meddlesome interlopers in regard to the suit filed by them to challenge the declaration of state of emergency in Rivers State.
The National Assembly also claims that the PDP states lack the locus standi to institute the case at the Supreme Court.
The Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd) during a meeting with the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Rivers State Oversight yesterday said the state remained fragile despite its present relative calm.
He said the situation thus required careful handling.
However, a former Deputy Speaker of the state, Marshall Stanley-Uwom, has approached the Federal High Court in Abuja to seek its order to stop the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Accountant General of the Federation (AG-F) and the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) from further releasing allocations to local governments in Rivers State.
The plaintiff claims that by virtue of the provisions Section 7 (1) of the Constitution and the Electoral Act and the Supreme Court decision in the case of AGF v. AG, Abia State and others (2024) LPELR-62576 (SC), it is illegal to continue to release allocations to Rivers LGAs which currently do not have elected chairmen.
The National Assembly, in its counter affidavit to the suit, argued that the 11 states failed to show how the state of emergency affected them more than the people of Rivers.
The 11 states, which sued through their Attorneys-General are Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Delta, Enugu, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba and Zamfara.
The National Assembly said it validly approved the state of emergency by adopting the voice vote method.
