The Federal Government has denied reports that it stopped the disbursement of funds to Rivers State.
Recall that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) had earlier on Friday announced that it halted the disbursement of October revenue payment to Rivers State, citing the Federal High Court judgement.
Bawa Mokwa, the spokesperson for the OAGF, who spoke to journalists on Friday, emphasised that the federal government would respect the court order halting allocation with due diligence until a contrary order is issued.
“What I got is that the October 2024 FAAC has not been distributed yet. However, the federal government will obey the court order on the matter of Rivers State’s allocation,” he said.
The OAGF’s spokesperson further noted that due diligence would be followed “as long as there is no contrary order,” adding that “the process of disbursement of the October 2024 monthly allocation is going.”
The development comes amid ongoing the protracted political battle between Governor Fubara and the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
Speaking later to Saturday Tribune, Bawa Mokwa, Director of Press in the office of the Accountant General of the Federation stated that “disbursement of October allocation to states and local governments by FAAC is ongoing.”
He explained that “Rivers State will benefit because of a subsisting appeal/stay of execution order.”
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division on Friday, reserved judgements in five separate appeals arising from the judgements of a Federal High Court in Abuja on the Rivers State government political crisis.
One of the appeals is against the judgement of the High Court which stopped the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from releasing federal allocation to Rivers State.
The presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, Justice Hamma Barka reserved the judgements to a date that would be communicated to the parties after all processes filed in the appeals were adopted by counsel.
