The member representing Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro federal constituency in Rivers State at the House of Representatives, Mr Awaji-Inombek Abiante, has said there was no sinister motive behind the demolition of the House of Assembly by the government of Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Abiante said further that the immediate past governor of the state and incumbent Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, who is currently at loggerheads with his successor, was aware that the Assembly complex had become defective.
Speaking during an interview on Channels TV on Friday evening, Abiante said if some other public buildings had been demolished and rebuilt in the past, that of the Assembly complex should not be seen differently.
The demolition of the Assembly complex on Wednesday, which was greeted with mixed reactions, was a new twist to the raging feud between the governor and his predecessor. The demolition came a day after 27 lawmakers loyal to Wike defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress. On account of the crisis, no fewer than nine commissioners had resigned from the governor’s cabinet.
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The Assembly members had described the demolition as the height of recklessness, saying there was nothing to warrant the exercise, adding that archives and personal belongings were lost to the exercise. He said they were not informed of the exercise and were not able to move their property before the building was brought down.
He stated, “On the demolition of the chamber, even before the exit of the immediate past governor, on the day he commissioned the residential quarters of the speaker, he brought the attention of all of us that the chamber indeed could not stand the test of time. It had leakages all over and there had been a recent incident, whether it was burnt or there was explosion, it failed an integrity test.
“Nobody would want to expose themselves to that danger. Is there a history of having to rebuild public asset? The answer is yes. The Mile One market has been brought down and reconstructed; the Fruit Garden has been brought down and reconstructed; the Assembly Quarters has been brought down and reconstructed, so what is the difference? They were all public assets and had to be rebuilt, and in rebuilding them, you had to bring down the previous structures.”
Speaking on the defection of the 27 lawmakers, he explained that the members who defected had become former members.
He stated, “Some members have decided to leave the constitutional duties assigned to them. The Supreme Court had made a decision on that, that if you leave the political party on the platform of which you were elected, when there is no division, you lose your seat.
“As it stands today, we had members who are former members of the House of Assembly. On their volition, they decided to leave and they are gone. They should be courageous enough to stand up to the choice they have made.”
