The political standoff in Rivers State has taken another turn as the State House of Assembly announced an indefinite adjournment, raising concerns about legislative activities in the state.
Naijaonpoint reports that this decision comes just days before the March 19, 2025 date Governor Siminalayi Fubara had proposed to present the 2025 Appropriation Bill.
However, in an interview with Daily Post, the Assembly’s spokesperson, Hon. Enemi George, clarified the reasons behind the move, dismissing speculations of a deliberate shutdown and explaining the circumstances surrounding the adjournment.
Clarifying the rationale behind the move, the Chairman of the Rivers State House of Assembly Committee on Information, and spokesperson of the House, George stated: “The impression that is being created about our adjournment is not correct. Normally, when we are adjourning, we say, ‘Mr Speaker, I move for the plenary to be adjourned to Thursday or Friday.’ But in a time when maybe we have something to attend to, maybe an event and we are not sure of when we will be able to come back or maybe our generator is bad and we don’t know how long it will take to be fixed or we have a leaking roof or one problem that we are solving and we don’t know when we are coming back, we then say we adjourn sine die.”
He emphasized that the term ‘sine die’ does not imply an indefinite suspension of legislative activities, but rather an adjournment without a fixed return date.
“It is the same adjustment, but sine die means that we are not sure of the exact date. We are not specific. We can come back tomorrow, it can be tomorrow and it can be next week, so it doesn’t mean an indefinite adjournment. People are just giving wrong interpretations.
“If the Speaker directs that we should resume tomorrow and the Clerk communicates to us, we will be there tomorrow.”
The conflict between Governor Fubara and the Assembly has intensified since the Supreme Court reinstated lawmakers loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
The 27 legislators, led by Speaker Martins Amaewhule, have been at loggerheads with the governor, leading to heated exchanges and political uncertainty.