The Rivers State Judiciary has refuted a report that one of its judges, Justice Boma Diepriye declared as “unconstitutional, null and void”, the appointment of Retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas by President Bola Tinubu as Administrator of the state.

CITY LAWYER recalls that the social media was awash yesterday with reports that a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt and presided over by Justice Diepriye ordered Ibas to vacate Rivers Government House within 48 hours.

According to the reports, the court emphasised that the Nigerian Constitution provides no room for such an appointment in a federating unit where a governor has neither been impeached nor is incapacitated.

However, a rebuttal obtained by CITY LAWYER and signed by David D. Ihua-Maduenyi, Chief Registrar, High Court of Rivers State, described the report as malicious and false news.

Urging the public to ignore the report, Ihua-Maduenyi emphasised that “no State High Court gave any order(s) relating to or concerning the subject matter as captioned in the online news.”

The statement emphasised that “Hon. Justice Boma Diepiri is not a Judge of the Federal High Court but a Judge of the Rivers State High Court, and is already on Easter Vacation, which commenced on Monday, 14th April, 2025.

“For the period of the Easter Vacation, only the vacation Judge is sitting; and Hon. Justice Boma Diepiri is not the vacation Judge.

“The mention of the name of Hon. Justice Boma Diepriye which is similar with Hon. Justice Boma Diepiri of the Rivers State High Court is not only false, but misleading, and clearly exposes the crass ignorance of the reporter: as the Federal High Court is different from Rivers State High Court.

“No State High Court gave any order(s) relating to or concerning the subject matter as captioned in the online news.

“It is regrettable that some bloggers and online news reporters have traded professionalism on the altar of pecuniary gains they seek to derive from traffic on their social media handle and web pages.

“Henceforth, the Judiciary enjoins the general public to seek clarification on any news report concerning the Court and officials of the Court before publication.

“The general public is advised to clearly ignore the false and misleading publication.”

President Tinubu had on March 18, 2025, suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy along with members of the Rivers State House of Assembly for an initial period of six months and appointed Ibas as Administrator of Rivers State.