Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), on Monday, clarified that the Supreme Court verdict on the appeal by the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, against Martin Amaewhule-led House of Assembly does not have anything to do with who is the authentic Speaker of the House.
OsunDailyNG reports that Falana made this known in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, following the Supreme Court dismissal of the appeal filed by the governor.
He said, “When an appeal is dismissed not on merit but on the basis of withdrawal by the appellant, the question of celebration doesn’t arise. What happened in this case is that the governor of Rivers State instructed his lawyers to withdraw the appeal on the grounds that it has become an academic exercise.
“In other words, the issues are no longer alive and therefore, why do you want to waste the time of the court? It wasn’t contrary to what a colleague was saying, the court did not determine who is a speaker or who is not a speaker, no, it didn’t come up.”
According to Falana, the decision at the Federal High Court that led to the appeal was the 2024 budget proposal, which the governor said has already been passed into law and that there was no need to continue litigation.
A five-man panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji had dismissed the appeal against the Amaewhule-led group, hinging it on the withdrawal of the suit by Fubara’s counsel, Yusuf Ali.
