Fresh Crisis Brews In Rivers State

• State Assembly Poised To Write Fubara Over Continuous Delay of Representing 2024 Budget

The fragile peace in Rivers State is currently being threatened if information getting to The Matrix is anything to go by.

It is gathered by this newspaper that the Rivers State House of Assembly is accusing the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, of not re-presenting the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and the 2024 Appropriation Bill to the lawmakers as agreed in the peace accord brokered by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last year.

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The Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, stated this during the first plenary of the Assembly even as two bills which appear to weaken the governor and strengthen the Assembly scaled 1st reading on the floor of the House.

Fubara had initially presented a budget of N800 billion for 2024 to a four-man House of Assembly for approval on December 13, 2023. The governor swiftly signed the budget into law on Dec. 14, merely 24 hours after its presentation to the lawmakers.

“The 2024 Appropriation Bill is yet to get to this august assembly. As it stands today, we have not received the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, we have not received the appropriation bill for 2024,” he said.

READ ALSO: Rivers Crisis: NLC, TUC, NANS, others protest in support of Fubara

“It means the state at the moment is operating without a budget approved by this august assembly in line with the 1999 Constitution as altered.”

The Martins Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly consequently unanimously agreed to write to Governor Siminialayi Fubara, to notify him of the delay in re-presenting the 2024 Budget to the House.