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Fubara orders relocation of House of Assembly to Government House

THE Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara has ordered the relocation of the state House of Assembly to the Government House in Port Harcourt.

The directive came about 24 hours after Victor Oko-Jumbo, a lawmaker loyal to the governor emerged as a new factional Speaker of the Assembly and a few hours after a High Court in the state barred the pro-Wike speaker and 24 other lawmakers from parading themselves as members of the Assembly.

In a gazette dated December 14, 2023, Fubara cited the burning of the chamber of the House of Assembly as the reason for the relocation.

He explained that the current state of the chamber was unsafe and constituted a threat to the lives of the legislators and their staff.

Part of the document reads, “Now, therefore, I, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, the Governor of Rivers State, this 30th Day of October 2023, pursuant to the powers vested in me under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria hereby issue, order and direct that all proceedings and business of the Rivers State House of Assembly shall temporarily take place at the auditorium, Admin Block, Government House, Port Harcourt, until the repairs, renovation and reconstruction of the chambers of Rivers State House of Assembly.”

The ICIR reported that the caretaker committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers, asked the lawmakers loyal to the state’s immediate former governor and Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, to impeach the governor.

Recall that Fubara had alleged that some of his commissioners were working against him.

The governor who claimed that the state House of Assembly had been working at variance with his government threatened that the House members could cease to exist as state lawmakers if he so wished.

Fubara said these when he received a group of Bayelsa State political and traditional leaders who were in Port Harcourt, the state capital, to seek a resolution to the political unrest in the state and better ties between the two states.

Fubara told the delegation, led by the former Governor of Bayelsa State and senator representing Bayelsa West, Henry Seriake Dickson, that he had shown restraint since the crisis escalated in the state.

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He acknowledged the roles some political figures, particularly his predecessor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, played in his ascent to the governorship but stated that such efforts wouldn’t cause him to idolise a man.

In addition, the governor bemoaned the way some of his commissioners were working against him.



The ICIR reports that many of Fubara’s commissioners, whom he claimed were working against him, are Wike’s loyalists. Some of them served in the former governor’s administration.

Wike and Fubara have been at loggerheads over who controls the state’s PDP structure and other issues.




     

     

    Though a PDP member, Wike currently serves in the APC government.

    Following the hostility between the two leaders, 26 members of the River State House of Assembly members decamped from the PDP to APC in 2023, shortly after assuming office.

    The feud had degenerated into nearly physical combat between their loyalists, and the possible chaos was so palpable in the state that President Tinubu had to intervene twice before tempers were calmed.

    However, the camps of both leaders have continued to threaten a showdown less than a year after the leaders were gamboling in the same political space.

    Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.

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