By Emmanuel Agaji

The Rivers State High Court Chief Registrar, David D Thua-Maduenyi has rubbished speculations suggesting that Rivers Sole Administrator has been removed by the state’s High Court.

Naijablitznews reports this was contained in a statement personally signed by the Chief Registrar saying:

“My attention has been drawn to an online news report with the caption “BREAKING
NEWS: Governor Sim Fubara secures Court victory over Wike and Tinubu –
Federal High Court Orders Sole Administrator to vacate Government House”,
authored by one Joy Musa published by 247 ureports on Tuesday, 15th April, 2025.

“Ordinarily, I would not have bothered myself with any refutal, but for the
mischievous mention of the name of Hon. Justice Boma Diepriye which appears
synonymous with Hon. Justice Boma Diepiri of the Rivers State High Court in
paragraph 4 of the report thus:
“Justice Boma Diepriye, who presided over the case, ruled that the
appointment of a sole administrator to oversee the affairs of a state with
a sitting, democratically elected governor is “illegal, null and void…”

“In view of the above, I wish to state as follows:
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 official of the Court before publication.

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

The newly appointed administrator of Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, Mr Atajit Francis has warned staff of the council against negligence to duty.

Francis handed down the warning at Ngo, the council headquarters, shortly after resumption of duty.

The administrator who also met with the Head of the Local Government Administration said that the third tier of government requires diligence to deliver people-oriented services.

Francis further said that under his watch, underperformance and dereliction of duty would not be condoned.

He stated, “While we are on the saddle, we shall reward diligence and hard work. We urge staff to work towards achieving set goals.

“My mandate is specified, they include sanitation, environmental development, job creation, primary education and primary health care.

“The essence is to positively impact the lives of our people, knowing that the local government is the closest tier of government to the people.”

Insisting that transparency and integrity were critical to effective grassroots development and service delivery, he said, “So I expect all staff to uphold the highest ethical standards and accountability in the discharge of their duties.”

Recall that the Rivers State’s sole administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd) recently appointed administrators to oversee the affairs of the 23 local government councils in the state after he suspended the Heads of Local Government Administration appointment by Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

Newcastle soared up to third in the Premier League with a 5-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace on Wednesday to close in on a return to the Champions League next season.

Jacob Murphy, Harvey Barnes, Fabian Schar and Alexander Isak were on target for the Magpies, with Marc Guehi also scoring an own goal, as Newcastle made light of the absence of manager Eddie Howe due to pneumonia.

A sixth consecutive victory in all competitions opens up a five-point lead for Newcastle over sixth-placed Chelsea, with a place in the top five good enough for Champions League qualification.

Palace remain down in 12th with their season now fully focused on an FA Cup semi-final date with Aston Villa later this month.

Newcastle travel to Villa on Saturday in a huge clash in the battle for European places.

But the League Cup winners are pulling away from the chasing pack for a top-five finish, buoyed by ending their 70-year wait for domestic silverware last month.

“That gave us huge confidence,” said Newcastle assistant manager Jason Tindall, who is was deputising for Howe, of lifting the League Cup.

“We were able to enjoy that for a period of time but we knew what our objectives were for the remainder of the season – to finish as high up the league table as possible.

“The manager always leads and sets that example of never switching off. They’ve gone out there, been really consistent and delivering performances.”

Isak wasted two big early chances to open the scoring when he was firstly denied by a fine Dean Henderson save and then headed over from Murphy’s enticing cross.

Newcastle only had to wait until the 14th minute to open the scoring when Murphy blasted in a remarkable finish from a narrow angle.

– Eze fluffs penalty –

Palace were gifted the chance to get back into the game when goalkeeper Nick Pope rushed off his line and wiped out Chris Richards in his attempt to punch the ball clear.

After a lengthy VAR check, a penalty was finally awarded.

However, Eberechi Eze’s lackadaisical spot-kick was easily collected by the relieved Pope.

Within a minute, Newcastle had doubled their lead when Guehi turned into his own net as he attempted to block Barnes’ cross towards Isak.

The England defender has been regularly linked with a move to Tyneside and has now scored an own goal in each of Palace’s two meetings with Newcastle this season.

“There are some days where nothing works, and at the same time everything worked for Newcastle,” said Palace boss Oliver Glasner.

“We couldn’t deal with their intensity and directness and pace.”

It went from bad to worse for the visitors as Barnes continued his fine form with a composed finish for his fourth goal in three games.

Murphy’s free-kick was then flicked in by Schar to make it 4-0 before the break.

The normally lethal Isak continued to be frustrated in front of goal as Henderson spread himself to deny another effort from point-blank range early in the second half.

However, the Swedish striker finally got his 25th goal of the season with a fine finish from outside the area just before the hour mark.