The Appeal Court has faulted the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which ordered the seizure of Rivers State allocations, and set aside the controversial judgment.
In a landmark judgment on Friday, the Appellate Court said that the lower court does not have the requisite jurisdiction to entertain the case and make the orders contained in the judgment on Rivers allocations.
The court noted that the mere presence of the federal agencies in the case was designed to cloth the court with jurisdiction.
The court, therefore, struck out the suit in the lower court.
It said, “The Trial Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to entertain the suit. Suit is struck out, and all orders made therein are set aside for want of jurisdiction”.
Recall that Justice Joyce Abdulmalik had ordered the seizure of allocations meant for the State, and directed the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the State’s bankers not to release funds to the State, claiming that the Governor didn’t present the State’s 2024 budget to the proper House of Assembly.
But the Appeal Court, in its ruling, nullified the lower court’s orders, insisting that the court overreached itself, and didn’t have the jurisdiction to even entertain the matter.
