The All Progressives Congress, APC, South-South Group has alleged that members of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, initiated impeachment proceedings against Governor Siminalayi Fubara after he refused to “approve fictitious projects in the state’s 2026 budget proposal.”
The group made the allegation on Friday in Port Harcourt while responding to claims by the Rivers State House of Assembly that the governor violated the peace agreement brokered by President Bola Tinubu to resolve the prolonged political crisis in the state.
Addressing journalists, the coordinator of the APC South-South Group, Freedom Amadi, said the impeachment move was not based on any breach of the peace accord but was a retaliatory action against the governor for resisting attempts to inflate the state budget with questionable projects.
“What is unfolding in Rivers State is not a constitutional dispute but a deliberate attempt to punish a sitting governor for refusing to mortgage public finances for private political interests.
“Governor Siminalayi Fubara did not breach the President’s peace accord; rather, he refused to add fictitious projects to the Rivers State budget, and that refusal is now being weaponized against him,” Amadi said.
Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly had accused the governor of acting in bad faith and undermining the Tinubu-brokered agreement.
They also alleged that Fubara engaged in financial impropriety by spending beyond the provisions of the 2025 budget, arguing that his actions justified impeachment proceedings.
However, the APC South-South rejected those claims, warning that such statements amounted to open defiance of presidential authority and posed a threat to democratic stability.
“When legislators publicly declare that not even the President can restrain them, they are not asserting independence; they are advertising institutional insubordination.
“President Tinubu intervened in Rivers State as the elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not as a partisan actor, and his peace initiative is not optional or disposable,” Amadi declared.
According to the group, the peace agreement was meant to restore stability and enable governance without coercion, not to subject the governor to legislative domination.
“The agreement brokered by Mr President was about restoring calm and respecting constitutional roles, not about handing Rivers State over to political enforcers.
“Any attempt to twist that agreement into a tool for intimidation or impeachment is a distortion of its spirit and intent,” he said.
The APC South-South also pointed to the alleged influence of Wike, arguing that lawmakers driving the impeachment process were acting in alignment with the FCT Minister.
The group said Wike’s continued silence, despite serving in an APC-led federal government, raised serious questions about his loyalty to the President who appointed him.
“President Tinubu extended trust and political goodwill by appointing a PDP member into his cabinet in the interest of national unity. That trust is being abused if a serving minister allows his loyalists to openly undermine a presidential peace initiative. You cannot sabotage peace and still claim allegiance to the authority that brokered it,” Amadi noted.
The APC South-South warned that using impeachment as a tool for settling political scores would erode public confidence in democratic institutions and weaken the credibility of the legislature.
The group called on the Rivers State House of Assembly to suspend all impeachment actions and urged the National Assembly to intervene to prevent what it described as legislative excesses.