Court dismisses suit seeking refund of Rivers’ funds spent by sole administrator

The federal high court in Abuja has dismissed a suit seeking the refund of all the Rivers state funds released, appropriated, and expended by the administration of the sole administrator in Rivers.

James Omotosho, the presiding judge, on Thursday, ruled that the court does not have the jurisdiction to entertain the case.

THE CASE

On March 18, President Bola Tinubu declared emergency rule in Rivers and suspended Siminalayi Fubara, governor of the state, and the Rivers house of assembly, for six months.

The president immediately appointed Ibok-Ete Ibas, a retired naval chief, as the state’s sole administrator.

On September 17, the president ended the emergency rule and asked Fubara to resume the following day.

Following the declaration of the state of emergency, the Incorporated Trustees of Rivsbridge filed a suit against Tinubu, the federal government, attorney-general of the federation, the accountant-general of the federation (AGF), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Ibas.

According to NAN, the group sought an order mandating the defendants to return, refund and or pay back any monies in the consolidated revenue fund belonging to Rivers state released, appropriated and or expended after March 18 when the president made the declaration.

THE JUDGMENT

Earlier on Thursday, the court ruled that it does not have the jurisdiction to entertain the suit filed by another party against the declaration of emergency rule in Rivers.

Ruling on the current suit, Omotosho held that since the application stemmed from the emergency rule matter, it is only the supreme court that has the exclusive jurisdiction to determine the legality of the presidential proclamation.

The presiding judge said the applicant’s counsel should have made his research before filing the suit, which is void ab initio.

“I must not fail to say here that counsel to the claimant ought to make proper research regarding his case before filing the same,” the judge said.

“Filing suits which are void ab initio is inimical to the course of justice and the court can suo motu nullify such void suit in order to save its time.

“I therefore hold that a void process cannot activate the jurisdiction of this court.

“In final analysis, the subject matter of this suit is outside the jurisdiction of this court and this court will decline jurisdiction over the same.”

The judge also declined the request to transfer the case to the Port Harcourt judicial division.

“This court having held that only the supreme court can hear and determine matters relating to proclamation of state of emergency, it would be totally worthless to then transfer the matter to another judicial division which equally lacks subject matter jurisdiction,” the judge said.

“Since this court has no power to transfer this matter to the supreme court, the proper course of action is to refrain from making any other transfer and to strike out the entire processes for lack of jurisdiction.”