Photo: Gov Fubara and his wife, Lady Valerie
Embattled Rivers State Governor Siminalaye Fubara has mocked his former godfather and FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, saying his administration would continue to survive despite his detractors’ antics.
Fubara spoke against the backdrop of an Abuja High Court judgment that stopped federal allocations to the state and blocked the governor’s access to the various accounts on those allocations.
He vowed that the ruling would not affect his administration’s commitment to development and service delivery or its finances, telling his supporters, “You don’t need to bother about the stories on social media. That one (judgment) is the least of your trouble.
“By tomorrow, I am still going to pay my contractors, those of you who have not gotten your salaries, your alert will also come to you. Local Government chairmen have had their JAAC, and your money is coming to your accounts.”
He spoke at the ‘Day of Thanksgiving, Praise and Worship’, held at the Main Bowl of Alfred Diette-Spiff Civic Centre along Moscow Road in Port Harcourt Old Township on Wednesday.
In a statement by Nelson Chukwudi, Press Secretary to the governor, Fubara, “mocked his detractors who had remained determined to derail governance and insisted that despite their antics, his administration has demonstrated prudence, transparency and accountability in handling the financial resources of the State.
Such public financial diligence, he noted, has attracted commendations from BudgIT, a civic-tech organisation that assessed Rivers State as maintaining the Number One spot in the 2024 Fiscal Performance Ranking among the 36 states of the Federation.
He said, “I can tell you, they said we are not going to last for one week, we are here, we have done one year plus. We are also doing the first anniversary of their attack.
“They said those buccaneers will not leave as local government chairmen, today, we have the 23 local government chairmen sitting here with us. They said their commissioners should resign so that we will be crippled. Today, we have more than 23 commissioners.” he said.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that the state has appealed the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which directed the Central Bank of Nigeria and others to stop allocations to the state.
The State Commission of Information, Joseph Johnson, confirmed that an appeal had been filed and expressed confidence that the judgment would be overturned by the Appeal Court.
He said, “An appeal has already been filed and I believe the Court of Appeal will upturn the judgment. There is no cause for alarm.”
