Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory has opened on the position of the Nigerian Bar Association over the State of Emergency rule declared by President Bola Tinubu in Rivers State.
Wike while speaking during his media chat with journalists at his residence said the NBA’s stance on the State of Emergency proclamation by Tinubu was influenced by the N300 million gift from the state to the association.
Recall that the NBA and the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Ibok-Ete Ibas have been having a running battle over the relocation of the association’s annual conference from the state.
The association had announced that it relocated the conference as a protest against the declaration of a state emergency in Rivers.
In his reaction to this, Ibas urged the leadership of the NBA to refund the N300 million given to it by the state.
However, the NBA said it would not refund the money as it was a gift and support towards its 2025 conference and not a hosting fee as claimed by Ibas.
Reacting to the debacle, Wike asked, “Now you said NBA, it’s unfortunate, now how will NBA say when you collected gift?
Continuing, the former Rivers State governor said, “When the president declared a state of emergency, you said oh it’s not correct until everybody now knew why you were doing what you were doing because the state gave you a gift of N300 million.
“A gift that was not appropriated, there was no appropriation, you took,”
Wike further described the action of the NBA and the state government under the leadership of Siminalayi Fubara concerning the controversial N300 million gift as illegal.
He said, “In my budget, I put a grant. I am allowed by law, can be appropriated. In this case, there was no appropriation.
“For the NBA to take an illegal gift, assuming that this thing didn’t come up now, did you know that they took a gift?”
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