…Four Lawmakers retrace step, Want Governor Impeached
The Rivers State House of Assembly has passed a resolution directing the state’s Chief Judge (CJ) to investigate Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu, over allegations bordering on gross misconduct.
The Speaker of the House, Hon. Martins Amaewhule, who presided over the plenary on Friday, gave this directive with 25 lawmakers who voted in favour of the motion to forward the matter to the chief judge for further probe, in line with Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
He directed the clerk to formally write to the chief judge within the stipulated timeframe to constitute a seven-member investigative panel to examine the claims.
The lawmakers who were supposed to sit on Thursday vowed on Friday that there is no going back on the impeachment of the governor, who they accused of committing nine impeachable offences, including unauthorised spending, failing to present the 2026 Appropriation Bill to the assembly, among others.
The lawmakers had launched the process after Major Jack, leader of the assembly, read gross misconduct charges against Fubara, which were signed at the time by 26 legislators.
The majority of the lawmakers are loyal to Nyesom Wike, minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who has been campaigning against Fubara’s re-election bid, after accusing the governor of breaching a peace agreement they both signed before President Bola Tinubu lifted the emergency rule in Rivers.
Meanwhile, four Assembly members, who pulled out of the move to impeach the governor, have retraced their steps, abandoning their earlier call for dialogue with the governor and his deputy.
The lawmakers are the Minority Leader, Sylvanus Nwankwo; Peter Abbey (Degema Constituency); Barile Nwakoh (Khana Constituency I); and Emilia Amadi (Obio/Akpor Constituency II).
Within to days interval, the four lawmakers, in two separate press conferences, said they were no longer part of the plan to impeach Fubara, calling on their colleagues to reconcile with the governor and his deputy.
As the House reconvened on Friday, they used the opportunity to change their stand during a live broadcast from the frontage of the Assembly complex in Port Harcourt, accusing the governor and his deputy of undermining their effort at amicable resolution of the crisis through sustained media attacks on the Assembly.
One of the lawmakers, Nwankwo, said: “During the pendency of this appeal, we observed that the governor and the deputy governor deployed their media aides to consistently attack the Rivers State House of Assembly instead of seeking the political solution we proposed.
“It is on this basis that we have resolved that the impeachment proceedings should continue.”
Also speaking, Nwakoh and Amadi accused the governor and his deputy of failing to show a genuine willingness to resolve the crisis through dialogue.
They accused the governor and his deputy of making it difficult for them to maintain their earlier stand against the impeachment.
