Friday, January 3, 2025 - The Chairman of the All-Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, Tony Okocha, has accused Governor Sim Fubara of fuelling division in the state.
Okocha faulted Fubara’s decision to present the 2025 budget to a faction
of the state House of Assembly, stressing that Rivers might experience the
worst political crisis.
Fubara
presented N1.1 trillion budget to the Victor Oko-Jumbo-led House of Assembly
in December.
The four members led by the Speaker, Oko-Jumbo, had earlier read
Governor Fubara’s letter requesting permission to present the appropriation
bill at their plenary.
However, Okocha said Fubara disregarded the rule of law and judicial
pronouncement in his budget presentation.
Okocha disclosed this while speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt on
Thursday.
He said: “I expected the governor to use the new year to extend an olive
branch and promote peace, but instead, he continues to fuel the flames of
division.
“It is unimaginable and unthinkable that a governor with such a rich
background in finance and governance would choose to sidestep legal processes.
“The Assembly has 30 functional members, yet the budget was presented in
a setting that courts have described as illegitimate.
“At least, he has seen the presentation of the budget, and I want to
avail you people of the opportunity of the fact that I was Chief of Staff and
that spanned through 2012-2015. What it means is that I have witnessed three
budget presentations.
“In this sense, an Assembly of 32, we lost one to death, one claimed to
have resigned, and then we have 30 functional Assembly seats. 27 of the
Assembly members are on this side, and three members of the Assembly are on
this side.
“Is it not anathema that a budget of a state as prominent and as
important as Rivers State will be presented to an illegal setting?
“The Court of Appeal, in their various judgements on issues like these,
have touched on these issues, and I refer to them as a forum, maybe a forum of
friends but certainly not legislators.”
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