Wike charged that the governor neglected to submit the state’s budget to the Rivers State House of Assembly in favor of his desire for a second term.
The minister voiced concerns over what he described as misguided priorities during a media briefing in Abuja on Wednesday.
“The governor is busy pursuing his second-term ambition, but he has not yet submitted his budget to the House of Assembly,” Wike stated.
He cautioned that the delivery of vital services to citizens and the efficient operation of government operations could be hampered by the delay in submitting the budget.
The continuous political division between Fubara and Wike, which divided the Rivers State House of Assembly into opposing factions, is the source of the conflict.
Fubara submitted a N1.1 trillion 2025 budget plan to the Assembly’s loyalist faction led by Victor Oko-Jumbo in December 2024.
“The governor is busy pursuing his second-term ambition, but he has not yet submitted his budget to the House of Assembly,” Wike stated.
On February 28, however, the Federal High Court’s ruling prohibiting the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Accountant-General of the Federation from disbursing statutory allocations to Rivers State was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Additionally, until the governor presents the appropriations bill to the Wike-aligned Martin Amaewhule-led side of the Assembly, the supreme court ordered the Central Bank to withhold the state’s allocations.
Fubara requested a revised date for the presentation of the 2025 budget in a letter to the Amaewhule-led Assembly after President Bola Tinubu’s judgment and efforts at reconciliation.
He suggested a convenient date for the presentation in March in the letter dated March 13 and personally signed by the governor.
Despite their advance notification, he and a few commissioners were refused entry when they arrived to the Assembly quarters in Port Harcourt on the appointed day.
Fubara insisted that he was acting in accordance with the Supreme Court’s order requiring him to submit the budget to the Assembly.
But on Sunday, the Rivers State House of Assembly ordered Fubara to submit the 2025 budget again after accusing him of being dishonest in carrying out the recent Supreme Court ruling.
The legislators, who support Wike, claimed that they had not received any contact from Fubara despite his assertion that he had written to the House to deliver the budget.
Ige Olugbenga
