Chains of illegalities take preeminence in Rivers State politics following the messy dimensions the feud between the incumbent governor, Siminalayi Fubara and his immediate predecessor, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike is going. Yet the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) fuels more illegalities as it has refused to conduct bye-election to fill the 25 vacant seats in the House of Assembly
By Jude Nzennaya, Port Harcourt
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is to be held responsible for all acts of illegalities that characterize governance in Rivers State under the administration of Mr Siminalayi Fubara, according to legal experts and analysts. These analysts insisted that had INEC held bye-election to fill the 25 “vacant seats” in the Rivers State House of Assembly, the political crisis that is rocking the state would have been brought to an end.
Recall that the lingering feud between the incumbent governor of Rivers State, Fubara and his erstwhile principal, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, over who controls the political structures and the finances of the state, allegedly, had resulted in the defection of 25 members of the House of Assembly loyal to Wike, to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in one fell swoop. At the time of their defection the PDP had claimed that there was no national division in its fold, a constitutional provision that should have warranted the defection.
The Factional Speaker of the House, Edison Ehie, had declared the 25 members’ seats vacant, including that of the Speaker, Martins Amaewhule. Also, a High Court in Rivers State presided over by Justice M.W Danagogo had given an order barring Amaewhule and his group from gaining access to the House of Assembly pending the determination of the substantive case. The National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP had also written a letter to the INEC notifying it that 27 vacant seats existed in the Assembly. The PDP also urged the electoral umpire, as a matter of constitutional necessity, to immediately conduct bye-election to fill those vacant seats.
In the middle of the ensuing crisis, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had invited Fubara and Wike to a meeting at Abuja where he brokered peace and made the duo sign an agreement to restore the Amaewhule Speakership and allow the defectors to remain in the Assembly. Tinubu’s intervention otherwise referred to as peace accord contravened the judgment of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, in 2022 which sacked 17 members of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly who defected to APC from PDP on November 17, 2020, to join then governor Dave Umahi and his deputy, Dr Eric Kelechi who also defected to APC.
The Abuja High Court, in a judgment delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo in 2022, held that the Ebonyi 17 lawmakers, having abandoned the political party which sponsored them during the election, cannot transfer the mandate they obtained from the ballot to another political party. The court held further that the Section 109 Subsection 1(g) of the Constitution was purposely made to ensure that defectors were not allowed to retain their seat in the Assembly, unless such defectors were able to justify the reasons for their defection.
Again, the Abuja High Court, in delivering the 2022 judgment, also made an order of mandatory injunction compelling the INEC to accept from the PDP a list of candidates to replace the sacked Ebonyi State House of Assembly members, and to issue Certificates of Return to them.
However, Tinubu’s mediation had illegally set aside the judgment of the High Court, thereby making the INEC which allegedly dances to the tune of the ruling APC, never to implement the High Court judgment in Rivers State. It is the alleged ostrich posture of the INEC in the Rivers State crisis and the “Peace Accord” which Fubara was allegedly forced to sign with Wike that are responsible for the crisis rocking Rivers State. Some elders of Rivers State said they have since gone to court to challenge the peace accord.
Anabs Sara-Igbe, the National Coordinator of the South south Leadership Forum, vehemently frowned at the peace accord, insisting that the seats of the 25 lawmakers remained vacant as declared by Ehie since last year. He maintained that “Any agreement between Fubara and Wike is null and void. As far as we’re concerned, any agreement against Rivers State is null and void. We the elders will not accept it, that’s why we have gone to court to interpret it. Mr governor signing that agreement is being challenged in court. Fubara has no right to sign agreement to mortgage Rivers State, the president has no right to compel Fubara to sign the agreement. We cannot obey laws that do not exist”.
Another Rivers State elder, Asukewe Ikoawaji, also corroborated Sara-Igbe when they appeared on a national television station last week. According to Ikoawaji, “When things happen, the president can weigh in, but when it is about the law, the president cannot handle it. People of Rivers State have gone to court. Everybody should wait till the outcome of the judgment. If the president sent for the governor of Rivers State, he has the right because the governor is working with the president. But when it comes to sensitive issues that have to do with Rivers, everybody should be careful. If the governor is doing what is wrong, people will react, that is what Rivers people are doing now. Life is turn by turn. Wike is distracting the governor. We are matured enough to take care of ourselves. When anything happens in Rivers State, everybody wants to be involved”.
Tentacle made efforts to contact INEC to explain reasons behind its foot dragging disposition in conducting bye-election into the Rivers State House of Assembly to help the Assembly function effectively, but the electoral body absolved itself of any blame and partisan posture. The INEC defensively argued that its hands were tied in the Rivers Assembly brouhaha because of pending court cases involving the warring factions, including the 25 lawmakers, the PDP among others.
Specifically, the INEC image maker, Mr Rotimi Ogunkanmi who responded to Tentacle’s inquiry into the Rivers State House of Assembly matter via a WhatsApp chat, said succinctly, “The contending forces in the Rivers State Assembly matter are in court. Therefore, INEC has to wait for the outcome of all pending cases”.
Chains of Lawless Acts
In October 2023, the lingering disagreement between Wike and Fubara came to anti-climax when the 31-member state Assembly was divided into two factions over plot to impeach governor Fubara. The 27 lawmakers loyal to Wike attempted impeachment proceeding against the governor. Honourable Ehie, the then Speaker of the Assembly was impeached by the 27 members for his refusal to support the impeachment. Amaewhule was made factional Speaker for the lawmakers loyal to Wike, while Ehie led the other faction loyal to Fubara. Last December, the 27 lawmakers had defected to APC, Ehie declared their seats vacant. Early December 2023, governor Fubara presented the 2024 Budget of N800 billion to the Ehie-led three -member faction which passed it into law. The action did not go down well with the other 27 members. The Tinubu peace accord was to direct Fubara to re-present the budget for passage by the entire members of the Assembly which the governor declined to heed.
In reaction to the 2024 budget passed by the minority of the Assembly members, the 27 factional lawmakers had on March 26, 2024, passed into law the “Rivers State Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill, 2024”, and transmitted same to the governor to assent to. The essence of the procurement law was to whittle down governor Fubara’s authority over the finances of the state. With such law, developmental projects in the state would be affected negatively because it puts limits to the governor’s spending power. Fubara declined assent to the Bill.
But the Assembly under Amaewhule Speakership went on to override governor Fubara’s assent to pass the procurement bill into law. Consequently, the House, during its 173rd sitting on Monday, May 6, 2024, said it decided to override the governor after he withheld his assent.
In a similar development, the House had earlier on passed a law extending the tenure of local government Chairmen in the state by six months. Those Chairmen were alleged to be Wike’s loyalists. But the governor refused to yield to the pressure by the APC members in the state to conduct local council election which made the Amaewhule faction to enact the extension law. The APC members said they were opposed to Caretaker Chairmen.
The Rivers State Public Procurement Act, 2024 became a source of worry to Fubara who estimated that the law will forbid him from awarding contracts that would further develop the state. In reaction, he described the Amaewhule faction of the Assembly as non-existent. He said the Tinubu peace accord only gave them time to float.
While addressing a delegation of political and traditional leaders from Bayelsa State who paid him a courtesy visit on Monday, May 6, 2024 to show sympathy for the political crisis he was facing, Fubara said the Amaewhule -led lawmakers who amended the Procurement Act were not in existence. He dismissed them as floating honorables he was tolerating because of the Tinubu’s peace accord.
Fubara: “Those group of men who claim that they’re Assembly members, they are not existing; I want it to be on record. I accepted that peace accord to give them a floating.
“There was nothing in that peace accord that is a constitutional issue, it’s a political solution to a problem. And I accepted it because these were people that were eating in my house, these were people I have helped pay their children’s school fees when I wasn’t even a governor. We might have our division but I believe that one day, we could also come together but it has got to a time I have to make a statement that they are not existing. Their existence is me allowing them to exist. If I de-recognise them, they are nowhere. I want you to see the sacrifice I have made in allowing peace to reign in our state”.
Fubara’s outburst upset the APC in the state which issued a standing order to the 27 APC members of the Assembly to commence immediate impeachment of Fubara. According to APC, Fubara’s refusal to honour Tinubu peace accord, instead he declared the 27 APC seats vacant, he had committed impeachable offence. The Chairman Caretaker Committee of the APC in Rivers State, Chief Tony Okocha, who addressed a media conference in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, May 7, said Fubara had rewritten the constitution.
“He has rewritten the books. Elementary politics taught us that there are three organs of government and their roles. And goes further to talk about separation of powers, and checks and balances.
“What the governor was implying clearly is that he is ruling Rivers State without laws. That Rivers State runs on Executive arm and Judiciary. So, what that implies is simply absurdity.
“You can now see the tendencies of a dictator. As an opposition party in Rivers State, we will not keep quiet, we will shout. It is regrettable that the governor has taken up to this point and we will not take it.
“The governor said that the president’s intervention in Rivers State which he signed was not constitutional but a political solution. But he assented to it, not under duress. The agreement was signed in a friendly environment and the governor assented to the proclamation and had the opportunity to speak where he thanked Mr president.
“So, nobody forced him to sign the proclamation. He did it willingly. So, at what point did the governor realize that the resolution was a political matter?”
As the latest impeachment fire raged, Fubara was at the same time plotting on how to consolidate his hold onto the reins power in the state so as to weaken his strongest opponent, Wike. In this regard, the governor allegedly instigated the impeachment of Amaewhule as the Speaker. Thus, on Wednesday, May 9, 2024, the three-man Assembly members loyal to Fubara impeached Amaewhule, and elected Victor Jumbo as the new Speaker.
Honourable Jumbo is the lawmaker representing Bonny Local Government Area State Constituency in the House. The governor also relocated the three members who are assumed to be the authentic lawmakers to the Government House from where they are operating without forming the constitutional quorum allowed for the 31- member Assembly to seat and take decisions.
On Friday, May 10, the state High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, ruled that the Amaewhule-led lawmakers were disqualified from parading themselves as members of the Assembly due to their defection to the APC. Justice Charles N. Wali gave the order in a case with suit number PHC/1512/CS/2024 filed by Rt. Hon. Jumbo, the newest Speaker, Hon. Sokari Goodboy, Hon. Orubienimigha Timothy against Amaewhule and 24 others. The court ordered that the Fubara government should stop dealing with the affected lawmakers as their seats had been declared vacant.
“An order of interim injunction is granted restraining the 1st to 25th Defendants from parading and holding out themselves as members of Rivers State House of Assembly and/or meeting/sitting at the Auditorium of the House of Assembly Quarters located at off Aba Road, Port Harcourt or any other place whatsoever to purport to carry out the legislative business of the Rivers State House of Assembly, their legislative seats having been declared vacant pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice.
“An order of interim injunction is hereby made restraining the 26th to 28th Defendants from dealing with, interfacing, accepting any resolutions, bills and/or howsoever interacting with the 1st to 25th Defendants in their purported capacities as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, their legislative seats having been declared vacant with effect from 13th December, 2023 pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice,” Justice Wale declared.
Following the court order, Fubara promptly swung into action by presenting the new Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Dagogo Iboroma, for screening and confirmation by the three lawmakers on Monday, May 13, 2024. They confirmed Iboroma in their new location at the Government House whereupon Iboroma was sworn in by the governor same day. This action has been criticized by many law experts and analysts who insisted that three men cannot form a quorum in a House of 31 members. They also insisted that only 1/3 of the House members are- constitutionally allowed to carry out such legislative task as screening of a Commissioner nominee.
