The political crisis in Rivers State has deepened as lawmakers loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara on Wednesday night elected a new Speaker for the House of Assembly, Victor Jumbo.
Though yet to be officially confirmed, The Guardian gathered that the emergence of the new speaker followed recent alterations between the executive and the legislators after the presidential peace deal failed.
Recall that the pro-Wike lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) had severely overrode Fubara’s power and passed some bills the governor declined assent to. Apparently angered by the move, Fubara reminded the lawmakers that they don’t exist.
The new Speaker, Jombo, is among the four lawmakers loyal to Fubara. The former factional Speaker, Edison 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 Fubara and his estranged political godfather, Nyesom Wike, now Minister of the FCT. Ehie, was later appointed Chief of Staff, Rivers Government House.
This is coming after the All Progressives Congress (APC) and LGA chairmen in the state are calling for the impeachment of the governor.
APC said the impeachment process was necessary given the governor’s refusal to honour the peace agreement initiated by Tinubu.
Recall that on Monday, Fubara had declared, for the first time since the commencement of the crisis, that the APC lawmakers do not exist in the eyes of the law.
In his reaction, the caretaker committee chairman of the Rivers State APC, Tony Okocha, who addressed newsmen in Port Harcourt, said the statement of the governor was tantamount to re-writing the Constitution of Nigeria.