WEDNESDAY April 9, 2025 |
By thenewsdesk.ng

Senior legal practitioners in the country, on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, flayed the appointment of Sole Administrators to pilot affairs of Local Government Areas in Rivers State, Vanguard reports.

In separate interviews with Vanguard, they noted that the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, Rtd, made the appointments in the face of a court injunction that barred him from doing so.

They argued that the action was not only contemptuous but a punishable offence.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Mr. Mohammed Abeny, who was peeved by the development, said: “The action of the Sole Administrator of Rivers State is illegal, just like his appointment.

“Apart from the subsisting court order which he has wilfully and recklessly flouted, he has also disobeyed the apex court’s various judgments declaring the appointment of Administrators to run local governments as illegal and unconstitutional.

“Those who appointed him as Administrator of Rivers state never meant well for this country and the survival of constitutional democracy in Nigeria.

“We never had this extreme lawlessness and disobedience of courts’ judgments, even during the military.”

Likewise, a human rights lawyer, Mr. Benjamin Umukoro, noted that the Supreme Court had in its judgement that granted financial autonomy to the 774 Local Government Areas in the country, expressly warned against the use of unelected officials to govern LGAs.

He said: “A full panel of the Supreme Court was unanimous in its decision that such practice was illegal. Surprisingly, it was this same President Bola Tinubu’s administration that filed the case at the apex court.

“When the governor of Edo State suspended all the elected Local Government Chairmen in the state, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, quickly intervened by declaring the action illegal.

“It is surprising that he has kept mute in the face of this brazen illegality in Rivers state.

“First, contrary to the order of the Supreme Court, President Tinubu released all the withheld allocations of Rivers State to the Sole Administrator.

“Now, contrary to an order of court, the Administrator has appointed his own Administrators in all the LGAs in Rivers state.

“This is why some of us have been shouting that one illegality will surely beget another illegality.

“This recent development is no doubt an affront on the authority of the court. The Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibas, should be made to face a contempt charge, at least to let him understand that we are not under the military rule where anything goes.”

Another lawyer, Emeribe Ugonna, said: “If there was a court order and same was duly served on the Sole Administrator and he still proceeded to act against the said order, those that obtained the order should know what to do.

“There is a laid down procedure to tackle any willful disobedience to a court order. Under our jurisprudence, no one is above the law. If he is found to have flouted a court order, he should be committed to prison to purge himself of the said contempt.

“The first step is to notify him about his disobedience and afterwards, give him the opportunity to show cause why he should not be jailed for such disobedience.

“The law is not a respecter of anyone no matter how highly placed,” he added.