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More Chaos In Rivers As Pro-Fubara Lawmakers Elect New Factional Speaker
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Fubara and loyalists of his former ally, Nyesom Wike, in the state assembly have been at loggerheads for months.
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The crisis appears to worsen on Wednesday as pro-Fubara lawmakers elected a factional speaker.
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The governor had said the state assembly loyal to Wike did not exist in the eyes of the law.
Eko Hot Blog reports that some members of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to the State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, have elected a new Speaker.
A three-member assembly elected Hon. Victor Oko Jumbo, the lawmaker Representing Bonny Local Government Area State Constituency as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, on Wednesday.
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Jumbo is emerging after the resignation of Rt. Hon. Edion Ehie, another former factional speaker, last year.
Ehie, who was the leader of the pro-Fubara lawmakers, resigned membership of the Assembly after President Bola Tinubu’s intervention to broker peace in the feud between the Rivers governor and his estranged political godfather, Nyesom Wike, now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
Ehie was later appointed Chief of Staff, Rivers State Government House, by Fubara.
The latest development in the state assembly is coming when the APC and the LGA chairmen in the state are calling for the impeachment of the governor.
Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara
APC said the impeachment process was necessary given the Fubara’s blatant refusal to honour the peace agreement initiated by Tinubu.
Their call came after the state governor said on Monday that the pro-Wike lawmakers don’t exist in the eyes of the law.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Allwell Ihunda, chairman of Association of Local Government Areas of Nigeria (ALGON) in Rivers, accused Fubara of withholding the funds meant for the LGAs since April 2024.
Ihunda, who is also the chairman of Port Harcourt LGA, said the Rivers governor is “starving the third tier of government of the needed funds to discharge their functions”.
The council boss said the governor made the move to “unlawfully dip his hands into LGA funds and pay workers’ salaries directly without the involvement of democratically elected LGA officers.”.
He also noted that the recent comment of Fubara that the house of assembly is non-existent shows that the governor is taking the state to the “dark ages of totalitarianism”.
FURTHER READING
Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, minister of federal capital territory (FCT), have been at loggerheads over political control of the state.
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