₦airaland Forum

To start with, the Supreme Court rightly ruled in 2004 that Mr. President has no power under the Constitution to unilaterally withhold the allocation of a state.

So what happened in 2004? Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State created additional 37 Lgas to increase Local Governments in Lagos State to 57 from 20. Obasanjo disagreed and ordered him to revert back to 20 since the additional 37 were not listed in the constitution. Tinubu disagreed but changed the name to LCDAs. Obasanjo then ordered the Minister of Finance and CBN governor not to release the Local Government allocation of Lagos state until the new LGA/LCDAS are scrapped.

Tinubu went to court and the then CJN, Hon Justice Uwais ruled that Mr. President does not have the power under the law to unilaterally stop the allocation of any state without a court order. Justice Uwais said “ next is the question whether the President of FRN was right to direct the Minister of Finance not to release statutory allocations from the Federation account to the states which created new LGAs. The CJN then said, the President has no such power. COURT is the only authority that can ORDER A STOPPAGE OF FUNDS TO ANY AGENCY”.


In the case of Rivers State, Mr. President did not give anybody any order to withhold or stop the allocation of the state. Elected lawmakers from Rivers state approached the Federal High court to determine the legality of the state’s 2024 budget passed by 5 members out of 32. The Federal High Court ruled that the budget was not legally passed and should be represented to the full house for passage as required by the constitution. The judgement was also reaffirmed by the Appeal Court. Instead of the governor to obey the court judgement, he opted to disregard the judgement and continue with the implementation of an illegal budget.

Following the governor’s disregard of a valid court judgement, the lawmakers again approached a federal high court to get an order to stop the CBN and Minister of Finance from further releasing Rivers state funds to the governor since the state budget he is implementing has been invalidated by a court of competent jurisdiction. The Court agreed with the lawmakers opinion that releasing further allocation to the governor would amount to encouraging unconstitutionality and disregard for rule of law. The court then gave an order stoping the Minister of Finance, Accountant General of the Federation and the CBN governor from further releasing allocation to Rivers state till a proper budget is passed into law.


Again, let me also state that CBN was a party to the case and they objected to the relief sought by the plaintiffs. That is, they supported Rivers state government’s position that the court should not grant the order to withhold or stop the allocation. The court in its wisdom overruled the objection of CBN.

So, it’s very clear that there is a huge difference between what happened in 2004 and the recent court judgement in respect of Rivers state allocation. President Tinubu did not issue any order to stop the release of funds to Rivers state because he has no such powers. In fact, he objected to the order through CBN but was overruled. The order was issued by a court of competent jurisdiction and until it is set aside by a superior court, it remains valid and enforceable. Instead of trying to blackmail Mr. President with a decision he’s not even a party to, we should all encourage the governor to do the right thing by obeying the judgement of the appeal court.

ALTERNATEID:
To start with, the Supreme Court rightly ruled in 2004 that Mr. President has no power under the Constitution to unilaterally withhold the allocation of a state.

So what happened in 2004? Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State created additional 37 Lgas to increase Local Governments in Lagos State to 57 from 20. Obasanjo disagreed and ordered him to revert back to 20 since the additional 37 were not listed in the constitution. Tinubu disagreed but changed the name to LCDAs. Obasanjo then ordered the Minister of Finance and CBN governor not to release the Local Government allocation of Lagos state until the new LGA/LCDAS are scrapped.

Tinubu went to court and the then CJN, Hon Justice Uwais ruled that Mr. President does not have the power under the law to unilaterally stop the allocation of any state without a court order. Justice Uwais said “ next is the question whether the President of FRN was right to direct the Minister of Finance not to release statutory allocations from the Federation account to the states which created new LGAs. The CJN then said, the President has no such power. COURT is the only authority that can ORDER A STOPPAGE OF FUNDS TO ANY AGENCY”.


In the case of Rivers State, Mr. President did not give anybody any order to withhold the allocation of the state. Elected lawmakers from Rivers state approached the Federal High court to determine the legality of the state’s 2024 budget passed by 5 members out of 32. The Federal High Court ruled that the budget was not legally passed and should be represented to the full house for passage. The judgement was also reaffirmed by the Appeal Court. Instead of the governor to obey the court judgement, he opted to disregard the judgement and continue with the implementation of an illegal budget.

Following the governor’s disregard of a valid court judgement, the lawmakers again approached a federal high court to get an order to stop the CBN and Minister of Finance from further releasing Rivers state funds to the governor since the state budget he is implementing has been invalidated by a court of competent jurisdiction. The Court agreed with the lawmakers opinion that releasing further allocation to the governor would amount to encouraging unconstitutionality and disregard to rule of law. The court then gave an order stoping the Minister of Finance, Accountant General of the Federation and the CBN governor from further releasing allocation to Rivers state till a proper budget is passed into law.


Again, let me also state that CBN was a party to the case and they objected to the relief sought by the plaintiffs. That is, they supported Rivers state government’s position that the court should not grant the order to withhold the allocation. The court in its wisdom overruled the objection of CBN.

So, it’s very clear that there is a huge difference between what happened in 2004 and resent court judgement in respect of Rivers state allocation. President Tinubu did not issue any order to stop the release of funds to Rivers state because he has no such powers. In fact, he objected to the order through CBN but was overruled. The order was issued by a court of competent jurisdiction and until it is set aside by a superior court, it remains valid and enforceable. Instead of trying to blackmail Mr. President with a decision he’s not even a party to, we should all encourage the governor to do the right thing by obeying the judgement of the appeal court.

mrvitalis:
The case has been appealed ans stay of Exercusion would be granted... After that supreme Court.. Who knows maybe by 2045

This has no bearing even if I feel the case is baseless

mrvitalis:
The case has been appealed ans stay of Exercusion would be granted... After that supreme Court.. Who knows maybe by 2045

This has no bearing even if I feel the case is baseless

yyba:
Appealed or not did you understand the difference ?

mrvitalis:
That is not for me and you to interpret let's wait for supreme Court because the lower courts are useless at this point..... If the court have power to stop state allocation then we would have someday court too would stop CBN from given FG it's allocation

Or stop National Assembly from sitting

ALTERNATEID:
A stay of execution has not been granted so the judgement remains valid and enforceable.

Btw, my intervention has nothing to do with the appeal of the judgement. This is just to clarify the misinformation and misunderstanding that politically biased commentators like Chidi Odinkaku and others are trying to pass that President Tinubu is the one behind the order despite what happened in Lagos in 2004.

This current order was not issued by the president but by a court of competent jurisdiction.

mrvitalis:
The case has been appealed ans stay of Exercusion would be granted... After that supreme Court.. Who knows maybe by 2045

This has no bearing even if I feel the case is baseless

mrvitalis:
The case has been appealed ans stay of Exercusion would be granted... After that supreme Court.. Who knows maybe by 2045

This has no bearing even if I feel the case is baseless

Confirmedzombie:
Stay of Execution will not be granted. It is the FJC that will grant the stay if Execution but the judge will never grant it as she is aware the Governor does not obey court orders.

Watch and see

mrvitalis:
You obviously don't know how appeal and stay of Exercusion works for you to make that statement

Stay of Exercusion must be granted before appeal process can begin... Go educate yourself

AntiZikist:
An accelerated hearing will be sought before the Supreme Court and a final judgement passed at most within 2 weeks .

After which the House will reconvene and begin the process of impeaching Fubara for operating an illegal budget.

There's no escape for Fubara.

mrvitalis:
Accelerated hearing granted on what basis?
Even election matters bound by limited time are not heard in 2 weeks . .. There is no basis for this argument you obviously don't know jack about how judiciary works

Key matter about defection is still undecided and a judge rules base on what?

What is my business even

mrvitalis:
The case has been appealed ans stay of Exercusion would be granted... After that supreme Court.. Who knows maybe by 2045

This has no bearing even if I feel the case is baseless

AntiZikist:
The affairs of the state are under severe constitutional breach by Fubara .


H can not be allowed to continue to spend Rivers state money without budgetary allocation and oversight from the State Assembly.

As far as democracy goes, Rivers is the only state being run as a dictatorship under the tyranny of one man .

Immediately the Supreme Court upholds earlier judgement, Fubara own is finished because the ruling by the Supreme Court stands as evidence to impeach Fubara.

AntiZikist:
An accelerated hearing will be sought before the Supreme Court and a final judgement passed at most within 2 weeks .

After which the House will reconvene and begin the process of impeaching Fubara for operating an illegal budget.

There's no escape for Fubara.

ceevictor:
Funny part of it is that a notice of appeal was already on at the appeal court and evidence presented to the madam high court judge, she struck it down and went ahead to give the ruling

ceevictor:
Funny part of it is that a notice of appeal was already on at the appeal court and evidence presented to the madam high court judge, she struck it down and went ahead to give the ruling

mrvitalis:
You obviously don't know how appeal and stay of Exercusion works for you to make that statement

Stay of Exercusion must be granted before appeal process can begin... Go educate yourself

Confirmedzombie:
It is the same judge that will either grant or refuse to grant the stay of execution.

It has nothing to do with the Apoeal court. You only type out of emotion.

Nonsense

ALTERNATEID:
To start with, the Supreme Court rightly ruled in 2004 that Mr. President has no power under the Constitution to unilaterally withhold the allocation of a state.

So what happened in 2004? Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State created additional 37 Lgas to increase Local Governments in Lagos State to 57 from 20. Obasanjo disagreed and ordered him to revert back to 20 since the additional 37 were not listed in the constitution. Tinubu disagreed but changed the name to LCDAs. Obasanjo then ordered the Minister of Finance and CBN governor not to release the Local Government allocation of Lagos state until the new LGA/LCDAS are scrapped.

Tinubu went to court and the then CJN, Hon Justice Uwais ruled that Mr. President does not have the power under the law to unilaterally stop the allocation of any state without a court order. Justice Uwais said “ next is the question whether the President of FRN was right to direct the Minister of Finance not to release statutory allocations from the Federation account to the states which created new LGAs. The CJN then said, the President has no such power. COURT is the only authority that can ORDER A STOPPAGE OF FUNDS TO ANY AGENCY”.


In the case of Rivers State, Mr. President did not give anybody any order to withhold or stop the allocation of the state. Elected lawmakers from Rivers state approached the Federal High court to determine the legality of the state’s 2024 budget passed by 5 members out of 32. The Federal High Court ruled that the budget was not legally passed and should be represented to the full house for passage as required by the constitution. The judgement was also reaffirmed by the Appeal Court. Instead of the governor to obey the court judgement, he opted to disregard the judgement and continue with the implementation of an illegal budget.

Following the governor’s disregard of a valid court judgement, the lawmakers again approached a federal high court to get an order to stop the CBN and Minister of Finance from further releasing Rivers state funds to the governor since the state budget he is implementing has been invalidated by a court of competent jurisdiction. The Court agreed with the lawmakers opinion that releasing further allocation to the governor would amount to encouraging unconstitutionality and disregard to rule of law. The court then gave an order stoping the Minister of Finance, Accountant General of the Federation and the CBN governor from further releasing allocation to Rivers state till a proper budget is passed into law.


Again, let me also state that CBN was a party to the case and they objected to the relief sought by the plaintiffs. That is, they supported Rivers state government’s position that the court should not grant the order to withhold or stop the allocation. The court in its wisdom overruled the objection of CBN.

So, it’s very clear that there is a huge difference between what happened in 2004 and the recent court judgement in respect of Rivers state allocation. President Tinubu did not issue any order to stop the release of funds to Rivers state because he has no such powers. In fact, he objected to the order through CBN but was overruled. The order was issued by a court of competent jurisdiction and until it is set aside by a superior court, it remains valid and enforceable. Instead of trying to blackmail Mr. President with a decision he’s not even a party to, we should all encourage the governor to do the right thing by obeying the judgement of the appeal court.

Cc: Mynd44 nlfpmod fergie001

Cajal:
And CBN represents federal government

mrvitalis:
Oga I said would be granted

You are not the supreme Court or appeal court.. Allow the court to rule on the matter

We don't even have copy of the judgement

mrvitalis:
That is not for me and you to interpret let's wait for supreme Court because the lower courts are useless at this point..... If the court have power to stop state allocation then we would have someday court too would stop CBN from given FG it's allocation

Or stop National Assembly from sitting

Max24:
Why are you dancing round in circles to agree with your opinion? You read what Justice Uwais said as posted by the OP. That the President has no powers to withhold LG allocation WITHOUT court order . What does that mean? That he could do it if there exists a court order. Period ! Let's stop been baised just because you are a Fubara lover or Wike hater. What OP poster is clear enough for even a secondary school child to interpret. Justice Uwais judgement clearly implies it becomes valid with a court order.

ALTERNATEID:
Did you allow the court to rule before declaring emphatically that the stay of execution would be granted? Are you the court as well? Maybe you need to start by taking your own advice as well.

mrvitalis:
If Joyce is not punished by NJC then I would lose hope completely in the judiciary the blantant disregard to laws is too much to overlook

mrvitalis:
You obviously don't know how appeal and stay of Exercusion works for you to make that statement

Stay of Exercusion must be granted before appeal process can begin... Go educate yourself

Linkzlikz:
What are you smoking? 😂Were you in Pluto when the CJN called all the judges involved in the case? It's obvious they deliberated on the issue to be able to come to a conclusion... stop deluding yourself Oga... 😂

mrvitalis:
You want me to make a statement from one line of judgement? I do not have the judgement I haven't read it

Picking a paragraph and making a run with it is nothing but propaganda

Max24:
But you have been making statements from less than one line of judgement when it is against Wike or Tinubu. You people are predictable !

mrvitalis:
Accelerated hearing granted on what basis?
Even election matters bound by limited time are not heard in 2 weeks . .. There is no basis for this argument you obviously don't know jack about how judiciary works

Key matter about defection is still undecided and a judge rules base on what?
Q1
What is my business even