ABUJA — Prominent human rights lawyer and professor, Chidi Odinkalu, yesterday criticized a Federal High Court decision that blocks the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from disbursing funds to the Rivers State Government until a valid appropriation act is passed by a properly constituted House of Assembly.
ChatnewsTV reports that Justice Joyce Abdulmalik issued the ruling on Wednesday, while responding to a suit filed by a faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly aligned with former Governor Nyesom Wike and led by Martins Amaewhule.
The judge held that Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s submission of the 2024 Appropriation Bill to an Assembly comprising only four members was unlawful.
The ruling halts further funding to the Rivers State Government until the legislative body passes a legal budget, effectively freezing the state’s financial operations. The decision aligns with the recent Court of Appeal ruling affirming Amaewhule as the legitimate Speaker of the House. The Court rejected Fubara’s appeal, despite pro-Wike lawmakers’ defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which would typically forfeit their legislative seats.
Odinkalu, former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, voiced his opposition to the judgment on X (formerly Twitter), calling it “tyranny of the #Outlaw.”
“Twenty years ago, when [President] Bola Tinubu was governor of Lagos State, the Supreme Court declined an application to withhold the Federation Account allocations of Lagos LGAs,” Odinkalu wrote. “Today, a judge of the Federal High Court has overruled the Supreme Court. This is not #RuleOfLaw; it is tyranny of the #Outlaw.”
