The Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress in the state called on the state House of Assembly to start the impeachment process against Governor Siminlayi Fubara, but the Rivers State Government rejected the request on Tuesday.
In an interview with The PUNCH in Port Harcourt, state Commissioner of Information and Communications Joseph Johnson stated that the governor would not permit anyone to plunge the state into chaos.
Additionally, the legislators were cautioned against bringing chaos to the state by Chief Edwin Clark, the head of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, and other notable figures in the area.
Earlier on Tuesday, Chief Tony Okocha, the state’s APC Caretaker Committee Chairman, urged the 27 state House of Assembly members who support Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike to start the impeachment process against Fubara instantaneously.
In accordance with pertinent provisions of the party’s constitution, Okocha threatened to impose harsh penalties on the lawmakers who disregarded the instruction.
The effort to remove the governor by an Assembly presided over by Wike’s supporters last year marked the beginning of the fallout between Fubara and his godfather.
President Bola Tinubu’s intervention led to the signing of a peace accord by the two camps later. They disagreed on the terms of the peace treaty, though, and had since renewed hostilities.
The governor had been overthrown by the Assembly, which had passed at least two bills against which he had refused to sign.
Fubara disbanded the Assembly on Monday, calling it a nonexistent and illegitimate organization.
Furthermore, he maintained that the eight-point peace accord mediated by the President was only a political fix for a problem rather than a constitutional dispute.
However, Okocha, the state’s APC Caretaker Committee Chairman, stated on Tuesday that the governor lacked the authority to declare the lawmakers to be unlawful.
Additionally, he questioned whether the governor realized that the peace agreement he had signed in Abuja ahead of Tinubu was unlawful.
He continued by saying that in addition to his refusal to carry out every agreement, he had been criticizing the President’s sincere efforts to end the crisis that had shaken the state.
“You know the history of politics. You know the constitution of Nigeria. The governor says the Assembly members do not exist, that whatever thing they are doing is because he allows them.
“In other words, he has re-written the books. Elementary politics taught us the three organs of government and their roles and goes further to talk about the separation of powers and checks and balances.
“Now what the governor was implying is that he is ruling Rivers State without laws. That Rivers State runs an executive arm and judiciary. So what that implies is simply absurdity. You can now see the tendencies of a dictator.
“As an opposition party in Rivers State, we will not keep quiet. We will shout. Regrettably, the governor has taken us to this point and we will not take it.
“What section of the constitution empowers the governor to declare the Assembly non-existent? The role of the governor is proclamation of the Assembly which is done once in four years. The constitution doesn’t allow him for the quarterly proclamation of the Assembly.
“He (Fubara) dissolved the House and proclaimed the Assembly at the end of the tenure of the Assembly. Mind you the Assembly we are talking about is a representative of the people. , The members were duly elected. They are not his appointees.
“So where did the governor derive his powers to say that the Assembly is non-existent? Meanwhile, records are there about the correspondence between the governor and the Assembly wherein he addressed Martin Amaewhule as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly when the nine commissioners resigned. He wrote to the House for them to be screened and were consequently reassigned their portfolios.
