The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has called on the 27 members of the House of Assembly loyal to Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to initiate fresh impeachment proceedings against Governor Similanayi Fubara.
Tony Okocha, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of APC in the state, made this call during a press conference in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, insisting that the governor has committed numerous impeachable offenses.
Okocha criticised the governor’s recent remarks when he received a delegation of Ijaw leaders from Bayelsa State, stating that the state House of Assembly was non-existent.
He argued that the Nigerian constitution recognizes the three arms of government—executive, judiciary, and legislative—and asserted that the governor has no constitutional power to declare duly elected members of the state assembly non-existent.
“Our directive to the Assembly is to immediately begin impeachment proceedings. And if they fail to do so, there are provisions for party discipline that we will enforce in accordance with the constitution,” he said.
He added that there were records showing correspondence between the governor and the Assembly, “where he addressed Martin Amaewhule as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly. As the Chairman of the APC in Rivers State and the representative of the President, we cannot allow the Governor to unilaterally declare, as if he were a court, that the Assembly members’ seats are vacant.”
Responding, Rivers Commissioner for Information, Joseph Johnson, disputed Okocha’s claim, stating that Okocha is not the Chairman of APC in Rivers State. He also asserted that the 27 lawmakers lost their seats on the day they defected to another party, as per the law.
“In our legal system, the 27 lawmakers lost their seats when they defected to another party; that’s what the law says. Section 109 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria clearly states this, and it is indisputable. You cannot build something on nothing.
“There is nothing at all to build on. The Rivers State House of Assembly does not exist; they are non-existent. The governor stated yesterday that they do not exist, but out of his generosity, he has allowed them. He has even gone further to draw them closer, but it does not appear that they understand,” he said.
Meanwhile, an elder statesman and leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Edwin Clark, has written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), asking him to intervene in the political crisis in Rivers State.
