By Pascal Ibe
Claim
Social Media users have claimed that Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara ordered shut down of NNPC and all other oil companies in Rivers State.
Verdict
This claim is FALSE. Simple findings indicated that this story is just a fabricated report to misinform the public as it’s poorly written. According to to credible reports, Mr Fubara has appealed the court judgment restraining CBN from releasing allocations from the federation account to the state.
Full Text
On Thursday evening, many social media users on X and in various WhatsApp groups shared what looked like a news report that the Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara, ordered the shut down of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and all other oil companies in the state.
According to the report, Rivers State Governor Sim Fubara Shuts Down NNPC and All Oil Companies in Rivers State, Declares “No Allocation for Rivers State, No Oil for Nigeria”
“In a bold move, Rivers State Governor Sim Fubara has ordered the shutdown of NNPC and all oil companies operating in Rivers State, declaring that without federal allocation for Rivers State, there will be no oil for Nigeria.
“Within minutes of the shutdown, Nigeria dropped in the global oil production ranking from 4th to 24th. Governor Fubara has openly challenged Minister Nyesom Wike and President Bola Tinubu to take action against this stance and see Nigeria boil
Four different people have shared this post on X as of Thursday evening.
See the users that posted this claim on X here, here and here.
FACTWATCH observed that this claim has been forwarded to WhatsApp groups and some members believed it.
Background
On Wednesday, a Federal High Court in Abuja barred the Central Bank of Nigeria from disbursing further monthly allocations to the Rivers State Government, citing alleged constitutional violations by Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
In her ruling, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik found that Governor Fubara’s presentation of the 2024 budget to a four-member House of Assembly breached constitutional protocol.
Justice Abdulmalik highlighted that since January, Rivers State has received and spent allocations based on an “illegitimate” budget, describing this as a “constitutional aberration.”
The court order further restricts the CBN, the Accountant General of the Federation, and the state’s accounts at Zenith Bank and Access Bank from releasing any funds to Fubara.
Verification
First, no reputable news organization in Nigeria has confirmed this report to be true.
This Fact Checker noticed that the claim was poorly written.
For instance, “In a bold move, Rivers State Governor Sim Fubara”, no professional journalist will shorten the name of a person at the beginning of a lead in a story.
Against what is stated in the claim, this Fact Checker discovered that Nigeria is steady at 15th position in the list of global oil production. Also, in the list of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Nigeria is ranked 8th.
FACTWATCH couldn’t find any post that corroborated this claim on the official X account of the Rivers State governor.
In a report on Thursday morning, the Rivers State Government appealed the Federal High Court, Abuja’s judgment which retrained the Central Bank of Nigeria from further releasing allocations from the federation account to the state.
The state’s Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, told The PUNCH that the judgment had been appealed, expressing optimism that the Appeal Court would upturn the judgment.
He said the pointers to the anticipated judgment were glaring, adding that they were unperturbed as they had already instituted an appeal against the Federal High Court judgment.
Conclusion
This claim is far from being true as there’s no single evidence that supports it
