Fubara presents budget to 4 lawmakers, demolishes assembly complex

By Victor Edozie (Port Harcourt), Muideen Olaniyi & Baba Martins (Abuja)

The cold war between Rivers State governor, Similanayi Fubara and his estranged political godfather, Nyesom Wike, yesterday assumed a dramatic dimension as the governor presented the 2024 Appropriation Bill to a four-member state assembly loyal to him, hours after demolishing the assembly complex, which the 27 pro-Wike lawmakers had been using.

The Assembly complex, which has been at the centre of contention between the two factions of the legislature, was demolished in the early hours of Wednesday.

The demolition of the complex was coming on the heels of an exparte order by a High Court in Port Harcourt which recognized Edison Ehie, the leader of the four-member state assembly loyal to the governor as the substantive speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

The governor’s budget presentation, it was gathered, took place in a hall inside the Government House, which the government said has now been approved for temporary usage for the Assembly pending the reconstruction of the demolished complex.

The N800 billion budget proposal was tagged ‘Budget of Renewed Hope, Consolidation and Continuity’.

In his budget presentation speech, Fubara said he was ready to weather the storm of the political crisis currently raging in the state.

“We recognize the challenges we face as a State and the pointless efforts to frustrate and sabotage our government even before we get started. As you know desperate situations call for desperate measures. I assure you of our determination to weather the raging storm strategically and responsibly,” he said.

The Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), Dr Tammy Danagogo, who was part of the governor’s entourage for the budget presentation, had earlier told journalists that the budget was aimed at giving Rivers people renewed hope that will guarantee continual harvest of projects and human capital development.

Govt justifies demolition

Amidst the uproar generated by the demolition exercise, the state government has said the decision to demolish and rebuild the Rivers State House of Assembly complex was due to the structural defects which arose mainly as a result of the recent explosion and fire incident which rendered the main building unfit for human use.

A statement issued by the Commissioner for Information, Joseph Johnson, stated that after the visit of the governor to inspect the level of damage done to the building on the day of the fire incident, it became necessary to invite professionals to advise the government on the integrity of the building.

“After the assessment of the integrity of the complex, the experts warned the government that to continue using the building in its present state would be disastrous,” he said.

He noted that the government had tried all cost-saving measures towards the repair of the complex until it bowed to the view of rebuilding the complex to a more befitting edifice.

Speaker declares 27 lawmakers’ seats vacant 

Also during yesterday’s plenary of the four-member state assembly, the speaker, Edison Ehie, said all the 27 pro-Wike lawmakers who had defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday had been suspended and their seats declared vacant as a result of their defection.

But reacting, one of the 27 lawmakers, Enemi Alabo George, said Martin Amaewhule remained the Speaker of the Assembly, backed by a subsisting court order and that nothing had changed, adding that the so-called declaration of their seats as vacant by Ehie was laughable and illegal.

“It’s funny. We have the constitution and everything we have done was in accordance with the dictates of the constitution. Section 109 (1)(g) is clear, that if there is a division in my party, I can move to another party, and that is what we have done. Whatever those four people, the Speaker inclusive, do does not have legal power. So, it’s not an issue and we are not bothered,” he said.

Speaking in an interview on Channels TV on Wednesday, Alabo-George, who is the chairman, House Committee on Information of the pro-Wike Assembly, said even though Wike remained their mentor and leader, the FCT minister had no hand in their defection to the APC.

He also said the demolition of the Assembly complex by the state government was ill-conceived and the height of recklessness and lawlessness, adding that the act has succeeded in erasing history, archives and files.

He lamented that lawmakers and workers were not allowed to move out their files and personal items before the demolition commenced.

“The fire happened in the hallowed chamber of the House of Assembly, and that was why we moved to another auditorium. The complex is massive, but everyone knows what the issues are.

“You don’t wake up one day and lead bulldozers into the complex and bring it down with everything inside. It is difficult to explain; because of one man’s ego. This is the height of recklessness and lawlessness,” he added.

Rivers PDP mum, national hqtrs demands fresh polls

While the Rivers State chapter of the PDP, which remains loyal to Wike, has refused to speak on the matter, the national secretariat of the party has demanded that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should, as a matter of urgency, commence the process of conducting fresh polls following the defection of the 27 lawmakers to APC and their seats now declared vacant.

Debo Ologunagba, PDP National Publicity Secretary, said the party’s National Working Committee at its 580th meeting on Wednesday, reviewed the state of the party in Rivers State, particularly with regard to the defection of the former PDP lawmakers and directed its National Legal Adviser to commence appropriate legal action with respect to the declaration of their seats as vacant.

But the Caretaker Committee chairman of APC in Rivers, Tony Okocha, said the exparte order that gave the Fubara loyalists control of the Assembly was aimed at intimidating the 27 former PDP members that defected to the APC in the state.

Political crisis may lead to legal issues – Lawyer

Meanwhile, a Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner, Angus Chukwuka, has said the present political crisis in the state where there is a parallel speaker and 27 PDP members defecting to APC will lead to serious legal issues.

He said a situation where four members of the house will hold plenary and receive budget proposal from a governor will also lead to “all kinds of legal gymnastics which will not tell well on the general polity.

“We have illegality challenging illegality, I don’t know whether one will cancel the other. But it’s important that the state actors take caution that what they are doing will actually draw the state into unnecessary crisis,” he said.

We have no hand in Rivers crisis – FG

In the meantime, the federal government has distanced itself from the ongoing political crisis in Rivers State.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, stated this on Wednesday while fielding questions from State House reporters after briefing on the outcomes of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Asked if the federal government shared Wike’s position on the matter as a member of the federal cabinet, Idris said: “Well, he is a federal cabinet member; he is involved in the situation in the state. That cannot be a federal government position. How can it be the federal government’s position?”

Idris stressed that the federal government is keen to ensure peace and tranquillity in every part of the country including Rivers.

“But you know that what has happened in Rivers is not a creation of the federal government. It is a political problem that is brewing in the state,” he said.

On the allegation raised by Asari Dokubo, accusing President Bola Tinubu of ignoring the festering crisis in Rivers State, the government’s spokesman said what the leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force said was only advisory.