Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused Governor Siminalayi Fubara of plotting to use the court to declare the seats of 27 lawmakers in the House of Assembly illegal.
The APC caretaker committee chairman in the state, Chief Tony Okocha, made the allegation during a media briefing in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Thursday.
The claim by the opposition party came amid the renewed impeachment threat against Fubara by the 27 members of the assembly loyal to ex-Governor Nyesom Wike.
Okocha also accused Fubara of instigating violence and disrespecting President Bola Tinubu, who waded into the political crisis in the state.
Fubara, who has been enmeshed in a political feud with his predecessor and estranged political godfather, Wike, had during the meeting with NULGE members on Wednesday, made a veiled reference to his detractors in the state, saying he would surprise those daring him.
He also assured the local government employees of his support and urged them not to be intimidated, but to “brace up, because the next step, it will be fire for fire in Rivers State. Everything will be implemented.”
Reacting to the governor’s statement, Okocha accused him of fanning the embers of war, saying that Fubara deviated from the matter presented to him by the leadership of NULGE and started stoking a fire in a manner that was disrespectful to the president.
“I want to use this opportunity to inform Rivers people and Nigerians of the move by the Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, to procure interim court orders from judges that I may not name here, but I will put in my petition today at the National Judicial Council.
“He wants to procure an interim order stopping the implementation of the laws which he was vetoed over. He wants to procure an order to announce as illegal the Rivers State House of Assembly as constituted and as led by Honourable Martin Chike Amaewhule. The governor is in the business as we speak and I speak with all authority because the walls have ears,” he said.
Okocha vowed that the APC would resist the move, adding that the governor will meet woth whatever he wants.
“These are the plans that are on and he is doing that so that he will now leverage on that order to go ahead to appoint caretaker committees in local government against the warning of the man he says he respects.
“But let me put it clearly here that we will stoutly, vehemently oppose such negative subterranean moves by a man who ought to protect the dignity and integrity of a state called Rivers State.
“Rivers State cannot be turned to a pariah because of the cluelessness of one person. Rivers State is a state to be reckoned with in the comity of nations, highly respected and regarded. But see how dangerously we have fallen because we have a governor who does not understand his left from his right.
“If the government of Siminalayi Fubara tends towards intransigence, then he will meet with civil disobedience. It is just natural,” the APC chairman added.
But in a swift reaction, the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr Joseph Johnson, said the claims by the APC caretaker chairman were spurious.
“There is nothing like that. They are afraid because they know their fall is near. Rivers people spoke yesterday through the NULGE and that organic love expressed put the camp of the factional acting APC chairman into this feverish situation.
“There is nothing like that. We are not giving to backyard businesses. My governor does not and will not do anything that is illegal. If anything will come from the court, it will not be through the back door, because we are not like them,” he said.
The commissioner also denied the claim that Fubara was disrespecting Tinubu.
