Elder statesman Edwin Clark has said the renewed threat of impeachment against Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara may lead to breakdown of law and order in the State.
NaijaOnPoint.com.ng (NOP) reports Pa Clark said this in a letter addressed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun on Tuesday.
Clark in the letter stressed that the threat to impeach Governor Fubara might cause a breakdown of law and order and that the consequences will not only affect Rivers State, but will also affect the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large.
The elder statesman noted that IGP Egbetokun has a duty to stop the fraudulent former Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from parading themselves and issuing provocative statements to intimidate and increase tension in Rivers State, which he said may one day burst into open conflagration.
The letter reads in full below:
THE THREAT BY THE FORMER RIVERS STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY MEMBERS TO IMPEACH THE POPULARLY ELECTED GOVERNOR OF RIVERS STATE, SIR SIMINALAYI FUBARA IS AN ACTION THAT IS LIKELY TO CAUSE BREACH OF PEACE AND BREAKDOWN OF LAW AND ORDER IN RIVERS STATE.
My dear IGP,
Firstly, I wish to apologize for addressing this letter to you because we have never met and we have never spoken to each other since your appointment as the Inspector General of Police of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but I have watched your activities with kin interest and great satisfaction. Please accept my belated heartfelt congratulation on your appointment as the Inspector General of Police whereby you have taken over effectively and I hope you will perform your duties impeccably, fair and just and without any discrimination, political victimisation or witch-hunting of political opponents and have the courage and ability to confront the so called sacred cows in our society.
2. I have decided to address this letter to you as a senior citizen and Elder Statesman and I have served my country for over 70 years and I will be 97 on the 25th of May. It is therefore my duty to pray to the almighty God at all times for the peace and stability of our great country. We owe it as an obligation to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government which will be one year on the 29th of May. We must therefore condemn and prevent any action by any individual or group of individuals that would threaten the peace, stability and unity of this country. We have no other country to go to if there is any uncontrollable crisis in the country and this is the main reason why I have been involved in the looming crisis in Rivers State between the former Governor Barr Nyesom Wike who is now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and the current Governor, His Excellency, Siminalayi Fubara which is spreading like wildfire and every attempt by Mr President to resolve it amicably has not succeeded.
I am the leader of the South-South Geopolitical zone and leader of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF). I am from Delta State. As a father, it is therefore my duty to see that the people of South-South and other Nigerians live in peace and harmony. I believe in justice, fairplay and equity, irrespective of whose ox is gored.
3. I have been involved in Rivers State affairs since 1951, before the creation of Rivers State and more actively in May 1967 when Rivers State was created with eleven (11) other states and when the Biafran forces occupied Rivers State and Mid-West State in the same year. Sadly, I also vividly remember the emotional moment when two UK trained University lecturers named Dr. Boardman Nyanayo and George Amangala, came to my residence at No. 16, Robert Road, Warri, to inform me that they had resigned from their positions as lecturers at the Federal Government College, Warri, in order to join the Nigerian army to fight for the liberation of the newly created Rivers State, which was occupied by Biafran forces at the time and that they have come to seek for my blessings and I did. Indeed, the liberation of Rivers State, by joining Major Isaac Adaka Boro and other Ijaw fighters, these young men formed a very formidable force. Time and space will not allow me here to tell the story of these gallant men, who unfortunately, all of them, numbering over 140, lost their lives. The only surviving leader was Captain Sam Owonaro, who was left with the scars of the war and remained in a wheelchair until his demise in his home town in Kiama in Bayelsa State in 2020.
It is indeed very provocative and insulting that Mr Nyesom Wike the FCT Minister who is the mastermind of the issues bedevilling Rivers State and who was born on the 13th of December 1967 after these two events should accuse his fathers and leaders like me of being interlopers, daring to challenge his leadership of Rivers State politics.
4. Fubara-Wike feud
Mr Wike helped Mr Fubara to become Governor of Rivers, but the duo parted ways because of the Minister’s ambition to control the politics and governance in the state.
The crisis deteriorated, prompting President Bola Tinubu to midwife a controversial peace deal between Messrs Wike and Fubara, after the seats of 27 pro-Wike lawmakers in the Rivers House of Assembly were declared vacant following their defection to the APC.
But despite the peace deal, the feud between the two former allies – Mr Wike and Fubara – has persisted.
Nyesom Wike should therefore stop making noise about the sponsorship of Sim Fubara because he knew the reasons he supported Sim Fubara to become the Governor of Rivers State to automatically centre immunity on the Governor so therefore he will not be available for questioning as a prosecution witness by EFCC against Mr Nyesom Wike.
IMPEACHMENT
Why Nyesom Wike decided to impeach his boy in favour of the former Speaker Martins Amaewhule his kith and kin from his home?
On Saturday 28th October, 2023, Nyesom Wike held a meeting with the former Rivers State House of Assembly members who are under his control and directed them to move a motion of impeachment against the Governor, on Monday 30th October, 2023 at an ungodly hour at about 7am. The members, about 23 of them signed the impeachment motion. These same members led by the Speaker of the House, Martins Amaewhule, assembled at the same venue on Monday 11th December, 2023 where they declared for APC singing APC song and waiving APC flag. The other faction led by Edison Ehie, the leader of the House, the Speaker of the House remained legitimate members of the House while the other members automatically lost their seat in accordance with Section 109(1g) 2 of the 1999 Constitution as amended because there was no split in the PDP as defined by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in these judgements.
5. Mr Nyesom Wike has been involved in politics of madness while also parading himself as a senior PDP member and fighting his rival at the PDP primaries, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. To confirm his claims that he is still a member of PDP in Rivers State; he mobilized supporters for the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting which held on Thursday, 18th of April 2024 at the PDP Secretariat in Abuja and he, Wike attended the NEC meeting from beginning to the end. The report is available in the media. His Excellency, the Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara was also present at the meetings.
THE CONTINUOUS PROVOCATIVE STATEMENTS AND ACTIONS BY CHIEF NYESOM WIKE AND THE 27 FORMER MEMBERS OF THE RIVERS STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY.
The recent unprovoked announcement by the Speaker and 26 former Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly might cause a breakdown of law and order in Rivers State and the consequences of such crisis will not only affect Rivers State politically, socially and economically but will also affect the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large. We have enough of such crises of all dimensions in nearly all parts of this country already and we therefore prevent any more of such crises. I had earlier advised and appealed to our President, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu to call his Minister Nyesom Wike to order to avoid this looming crisis and that the interest of the entire country should supersede the interest of an individual or a small group of people otherwise the consequences will be disastrous.
It is in this spirit I am addressing this letter to you as the Inspector General of Police who is in charge of the peace and stability of this country. You are therefore fully aware of the dangerous precarious situation we are facing today in this country whereby the people are no longer safe to move around, to go to their farms to feed themselves; I seriously warn that if the sanctity of the country’s constitution is not obeyed by its citizens, the consequences that will follow will be anarchy.
The 27 former Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have automatically forfeited their seats in accordance with section 109 (1g) 2 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, which states; “g, being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another part before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected; 2, The Speaker of the House of Assembly shall give effect to subsection (1) of this section, so however that the Speaker or a member shall first present evidence satisfactory to the House that any of the provisions of that subsection has become applicable in respect of the member.”
Above all, section 1 of our Supreme Law i.e the Constitution states, “sub1, This Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
It will therefore be madness and suicidal for any responsible and patriotic Nigerian to breach the Constitution of Nigeria.
At this juncture, It may also be necessary to cite a publication in The Guardian dated 18th April 2015; a case where a Member of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the Labour Party defected to ACN; in fact Ifedayo Abegunde was the one who went to Akure High Court to challenge the constitutional position and lost; he appealed to the Court of Appeal and also lost, then he appealed again to the Supreme Court of Nigeria where his case was finally rejected and he lost his seat in the House of Representatives. Justice Musa Muhammad cited previous decisions by the Supreme Court in FEDECO vs Goni and Attorney General of the Federation vs Abubakar. He held that “The principles enunciated by this court in the two cases – FEDECO vs Goni and Attorney General of the Federation vs Abubakar supra- is to the effect that only such fractionalisation, fragmentation, splintering or ‘division’ that makes it impossible or impracticable for a particular party to function, as such will, by virtue of the proviso to section 68 (1) (g), justify a person’s defection to another party and the retention of his seat for the unexpired term in the House, in spite of the defection. “Otherwise, has rightly held by the courts below, the defector automatically loses his seat.”
“Justice Muhammad explained that by virtue of the combined provisions of section 68(a) and (g), as well as Section 222(a), (e) and (f) of the constitution, division in a party at the state level did not entitle a legislator to abandon the party on which platform he or she contested and won his or her seat.”
You have a duty therefore to stop these fraudulent former Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from parading themselves and issuing provocative statements to intimidate and increase tension in Rivers State which may one day burst into open conflagration.
You also have a duty to protect the constitution of Nigeria without which there will be no Nigeria.
Mr Inspector General of Police, it is even more disturbing that these former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly are carrying out their illegal activities under the cover of policemen in uniform on whom rest a primary duty to enforce the law. This must be very disturbing to you as it is to all responsible Nigerians.
Finally, I sincerely appeal to you to use your office as head of the Law enforcement arm of the country to advise Mr President and other members of the National Security Council of which you are the center, to bring this show of shame to an end and spare Nigeria from being a laughing stock to the entire world. This is more so as Mr President and all of you swore to protect and defend the constitution of Nigeria, which now appears to be overlooked despite the glaring infringement being openly carried out in favour of one individual and his followers.
I have taken the liberty to send copies of this letter to other security Chiefs including, National Security Adviser, Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Director General Department of State Services (DG DSS), Director General National Intelligence Agency (DG NIA) and Director Military Intelligence (DMI).
Be assured that, I will continue to pray for you as a father that God will give you the wisdom and courage to carry out the duties of your office and God will continue to protect you and all the men of the Nigerian Police Force.
Thank you and God Bless.
CHIEF Dr Edwin .K. Clark OFR,CON
Leader Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF)
Former Minister of Information and
Senator of the 2nd Republic.