The Rivers State Government on Tuesday dismissed a call on the state House of Assembly by the Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress in the state to commence impeachment proceedings against Governor Siminalayi Fubara. Punch reports.
The state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, who said this in an interview with The PUNCH in Port Harcourt, said the governor would not allow anybody to throw the state into anarchy.
Also, the leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Chief Edwin Clark and other prominent individuals in the region warned the lawmakers against causing anarchy in the state.
The APC Caretaker Committee Chairman in the state, Chief Tony Okocha, had earlier on Tuesday called on the 27 members of the state House of Assembly loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, to immediately commence an impeachment process against Fubara.
Okocha warned that failure of the lawmakers to heed the directive would attract severe sanctions in line with relevant sections of the party’s constitution.
The crisis between Fubara and his godfather, Wike, started last year when the Assembly dominated by Wike’s loyalists attempted to impeach the governor.
The two camps later signed a peace pact following the intervention of President Bola Tinubu. But they had since resumed hostilities as they disagreed on the peace pact.
The Assembly had at least overridden the governor by passing at least two bills that he withheld assent.
On Monday, Fubara dismissed the Assembly as an illegal body that did not exist.
Also, he insisted that the eight-point peace agreement brokered by the President was a mere political solution to a problem and not a constitutional issue.
APC knocks Fubara
But on Tuesday, the APC Caretaker Committee Chairman in the state, Okocha, said the governor did not have the powers to declare the lawmakers as illegal.
He also wondered when the governor realised that the peace deal which he signed before Tinubu in Abuja was unconstitutional.
He added that aside from refusing to implement all the agreements, he had been making scathing remarks on the President’s genuine intervention to resolve the crisis that rocked the state.
The state APC CTC Chairman stated, “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.
“We want this to be on record as the chairman of the APC in Rivers State, as the representative of Mr President, we won’t sit here to see the governor declare on his own as if he is in court.
“He has become Daniel, who is sitting in judgment to declare the Assembly members’ seat vacant. To that extent in consultation with my party, we have directed and we are directing the Assembly members as APC members who are in the Assembly to immediately commence the impeachment of Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
“We have directed members of the Rivers State House of Assembly to commence the impeachment process of a comatose government. The governor’s head has become bigger than his pillow. He does not respect the law.’’
But in a swift reaction, the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, said the position of the governor had not changed.
He stated, “By jurisprudence, the 27 lawmakers lost their seats on the day they defected to another party. That is what the law says.
“The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 109, 1g clearly states it. It is incontrovertible. So for anybody to think that they can start a process, the law says they cannot put something on nothing.
“There is nothing at all to even put on something. The House of Assembly does not exist. They are non-existent. The governor said yesterday that they did not exist. Out of his magnanimity, he allowed them, giving them a floater to see if they could come to reality. “But it does appear that they don’t understand what was done for them. So if they want to start an impeachment process, they do not have the legal teeth to even do it. They can only bark, but they can’t bite.”
Efforts to reach the spokesman for the House of Assembly, Enemi George, proved abortive as he neither picked up several calls put across to his telephone nor responded to text and WhatsApp messages sent to him as of the time of filing this report on Tuesday night.
The same goes for the House Leader, Major Jack, who neither answered calls nor replied to messages sent to him.
But when contacted, the Deputy Speaker, Dumle Maol, said there was nothing wrong with Okocha’s call.
He however said, “That is the position of the party. That is his (Okocha) opinion. He is the leader of the party in the state and there is nothing wrong with that.
“The party has the power to invoke relevant sections of the constitution. But I don’t hold brief. I am not the spokesman. “
On his part, the leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Chief Edwin Clark, warned the lawmakers against causing tension and anarchy in the state.
He asked the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to stop the 27 lawmakers from issuing provocative statements capable of increasing tension in the state.
The former minister of information made the call in a letter addressed to the IGP in Abuja on Tuesday, where he noted that the lawmakers had by their defection to the APC, vacated their seats, according to Section 109 (1g) 2 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Clark stated, “I appeal to the Inspector General of Police. You are a very intelligent fellow. We have seen that your policemen in uniform are being used to breach the constitution of Nigeria with impunity. You have to arrest the situation. People whose elections have been declared null and void, should not be allowed to disturb the government of the elected governor in Rivers State.
“It (the crisis) will spread from Niger Delta; from Niger Delta to the economy, and it will affect our economy, which is already very bad. I believe that the Inspector General of Police should advise Mr President that the interest of one individual and his men is not above the interest of the nation. Otherwise, there will be problems in this country that we will not be able to cope with”, Clark said.
Clark noted that their defection would only be justified and accepted if there was a crisis or factions in the national leadership of the PDP, according to a Supreme Court ruling in the case of FEDECO vs Goni and the Attorney General vs Abubakar.
According to him, the court ruled that only such splintering would justify a defection to another party and the retention of the seat until the expiration of the tenure, according to the provisions of Section 68 (1) (g) ad Section 222 (a),(e) and (f) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Clark stated, “Mr Wike helped Mr Fubara to become governor of Rivers, but the duo parted ways because of the minister’s ambition to control the politics and governance in the state. The crisis deteriorated, prompting President Bola Tinubu to midwife a controversial peace deal between Messrs Wike and Fubara after the seats of 27 pro-Wike lawmakers in the Rivers House of Assembly were declared vacant following their defection to the APC.’’
On her part, a member of the Rivers State Elders Council and prominent Niger Delta activist, Ms Ann Kio-Briggs, faulted the APC.
She further said what was going on was the handiwork of a few self-serving individuals trying to throw the state into chaos.
She said they would not go scot-free and blamed the national leadership of the PDP for not rising to the occasion to defend the governor.
Kio-Briggs stated, “The so-called chairman of the APC here in Rivers State calling for the impeachment of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, on what grounds?
“He has said what he has said. Let us see how they are going to proceed because what is happening in Rivers State and has been happening in Rivers State since the beginning of this governor’s tenure is unacceptable to the people of Rivers State.
“These are individuals putting the state at risk for the sake of their own political greed, and power structure. We will all by God’s grace live to see the end of this.
“But let no one think that a handful of people in Rivers State are going to get away with throwing a state like Rivers into chaos.
“To impeach a governor is not something you call for in the morning and you get it within a week. It is a process and the process will be followed and the people of Rivers State will be watching.”
Another member of the Rivers State Elders Council and pioneer spokesman for the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, said the legality of the lawmakers was in question and awaiting judgment in the Court of Appeal.
He said the lawmakers would be worsening their predicament, if they embarked on any illegality.
He stated, “Well, first of all, the law is very clear that when a case is before a court of competent jurisdiction you stay all actions.
“This matter is before the Court of Appeal and we are waiting for a judgment as to whether the directives of the President are legal or illegal.
Legal backing
“Two, the interpretation of Section 109 g and 2; these are matters that are before the court. Because the legality of the Assembly members is in question, they cannot proceed with any impeachment proceedings. And I can assure you that in less than two, or three months their fate will be known by law.
“So my advice to them is to allow the court to deliver a judgment. If the court rules that they are legitimate members of the House of Assembly, fine they can do whatever they want to do. Otherwise, they will put themselves more into trouble.
“You don’t make laws that cannot be obeyed. So they should be patient enough as we are also patient to wait for the judiciary to interpret the law.
“That is the bane of the whole struggle. If the law is interpreted and if it favours them all well as good. But if it doesn’t favour them, they should quickly go back and seek re-nomination and possibly contest again.
“If they are voted back to the house then it is a different ball game.”
He therefore said anybody could call for impeachment of the governor, saying such a call would be subjected to the constitution.
“You cannot stand something in the void. The issue he (Okocha) is talking about is constitutional. You can’t stand something on illegality.
“The legality of the Assembly members is in question. More so, their seats were once declared vacant and a Court of competent jurisdiction has upheld it.
“Now we are going for proper interpretation of the law. We all know what happened to the Cross River State House of Assembly and Ebonyi House of Assembly members.
“So what we are saying is they should be patient for us to go through the judicial process. If it favours them, fine. Otherwise, let them go home and prepare for another election.”