The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, on Thursday, alleged that Governor, Siminalayi Fubara was plotting to use the court to declare the state House of Assembly illegal.
The claim by the opposition party came amid the renewed impeachment threat against Fubara by 27 members of the Assembly loyal to ex-governor Nyesom Wike.
The Rivers APC also accused Fubara of instigating violence and disrespecting President Bola Tinubu, who waded into the political crisis in the state.
The state APC caretaker committee chairman, Chief Tony Okocha, made the allegations during a media briefing in Port Harcourt on Thursday.
Fubara, who has been enmeshed in a political feud with his predecessor and estranged political godfather, Nyesom Wike, had, during the meeting with NULGE members on Wednesday, made a veiled reference to his detractors in the state, saying he would surprise those daring him.
He also assured the local government employees of his support and urged them not to be intimidated but to “brace up, because the next step, it will be fire for fire in Rivers State. Everything will be implemented.”
Reacting to the governor’s statement, Okocha accused him of fanning the embers of war, saying that Fubara deviated from the matter presented to him by the NULGE and started stoking a fire in a manner that was disrespectful to the President.
He stated, “I want to use this opportunity to inform Rivers people and Nigerians of the move by the Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, to procure interim court orders from judges that I may not name here, but I will put in my petition today at the National Judicial Council.
“He wants to procure an interim order stopping the implementation of the laws which he was vetoed over. He wants to procure an order to announce as illegal the Rivers State House of Assembly as constituted and as led by Honourable Martin Chike Amaewhule. The governor is in the business as we speak and I speak with all authority because the walls have ears.”
He vowed that the APC would resist the move.
“These are the plans that are on and he is doing that so that he will now leverage on that order to go ahead to appoint caretaker committees in local government against the warning of the man he says he respects, the President.
“But let me put it clearly here that we will stoutly, vehemently oppose such negative subterranean moves by a man who ought to protect the dignity and integrity of a state called Rivers State.
“Rivers State cannot be turned to a pariah because of the cluelessness of one person. Rivers State is a state to be reckoned with in the comity of nations, highly respected and regarded. But see how dangerously we have fallen because we have a governor who does not understand his left from his right.
“If the government of Siminalayi Fubara tends towards intransigence, then he will meet with civil disobedience. It is just natural.”
But in a swift reaction, the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr Joseph Johnson, said the claims by the APC caretaker chairman were spurious.
“There is nothing like that. They are afraid because they know their fall is near. Rivers people spoke yesterday through the NULGE and that organic love expressed put the camp of the factional acting APC chairman into this feverish situation.
“There is nothing like that. We are not giving to backyard businesses. My governor does not and will not do anything that is illegal. If anything will come from the court, it will not be through the back door, because we are not like them.”
The commissioner also denied the claim that Fubara was disrespectful to Tinubu.
Meanwhile, the leader of Ahoada East Legislative Assembly, Honourable ThankGod Bernard Unwhe and seven other councillors, on Thursday, declared their loyalty to Fubara.
The councillors, representing eight electoral wards in the 13-ward council, expressed their commitment to mobilise their supporters to key into the governor’s policies and programmes to advance good governance in the state.
All the eight councillors were elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party and were also top leaders of the Grassroots Development Initiative, a pro-PDP group, before they took the decision to join and rally behind the SIMplified Movement in the interest of the state.
They made their position known during a meeting presided over by the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Dr Edison Ehie, at the Government House, Port Harcourt, on Wednesday evening.
This was contained in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Thursday by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Nelson Chukwudi and sent to newsmen.
The councillors, who spoke separately during the meeting, said their action was voluntary and necessary to ensure that the people in their various communities were not left behind in the wind of change blowing across the 23 local government areas of the state.
Responding, Ehie, who hails from the same local government area, encouraged the eight new members of the SIMplified Movement to remain steadfast and resolute in their support for the governor.
