December 17, (THEWILL) – After what may be described as a short break due to the intervention of President Bola Tinubu, the political crisis rocking Rivers State raised its ugly head again last Monday.
This time around, the crisis assumed a different dimension, with 27 out of the 32 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly defecting from the ruling People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), to the All Progressives Congress, (APC).
The defected lawmakers cited divisions within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as reason for their action.
The defection came about two weeks after former Governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, told reporters that 27 lawmakers in the state were opposing the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
Reports had it that two of the members who earlier defected are back in PDP.
Intrigues continued to trail the crisis as the House of Assembly complex was demolished on Wednesday.
The demolition was carried out under the order of the state government amid tight security about two months after fire gutted a part of the complex.
Reports had it that the demolition started at about 6.45am, with Governor Fubara leading a convoy consisting of about 10 bulldozers carried on heavy-duty flatbed Lorries into the Assembly premises.
This was as the governor presented the N800bn 2024 Budget estimates to the Edison Ehie-led legislators at the Government House a few minutes after the demolition was carried out.
The presentation of the budget was held at a hall in Government House, apparently, due to the “renovation” work at the state assembly complex which started Wednesday morning.
Present at the budget presentation were members of the House loyal to Ehie. None of the members who recently moved from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) was in attendance.
The crisis deepened further on Thursday as nine commissioners loyal to Wike resigned from the cabinet of Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
This was as the two factions of the fractured House of Assembly held separate sittings on Thursday.
The commissioners that tendered their resignation were the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof Zacchaeus Adangor (SAN); Commissioner for Works, Dr Des George-Kelly; Commissioner for Special Duties, Emeka Woke; Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Mrs Inime Aguma; the Commissioner for Finance, Isaac Kamalu; and the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Chinedu Mmom.
Of the nine commissioners, five served under Wike’s administration in the same capacity, while Woke was Wike’s Chief of Staff for eight years.
Meanwhile the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party has directed its Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade, to commence appropriate legal action against the defection of 27 state House of Assembly lawmakers from its party to the All Progressives Congress.
Their defection, according to the letters written to the Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, and read on the floor of the House, was predicated on the division in the party as regards the tussle for the position of the National Secretary of the PDP, which had made communications channels difficult.
However, the PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, on Wednesday, said its NWC’s 580th meeting thoroughly reviewed the state of the party in Rivers State.
Ologunagba disclosed that the party communicates to the Independent National Electoral Commission by formally informing the Commission of the vacancies in the Rivers State House of Assembly as a result of the defection.
The PDP demanded that INEC should within the constitutionally stipulated time, conduct fresh elections in the 27 state constituencies in Rivers State where vacancies now exist as a result of the defection of the 27 former members.
A political affairs commentator, Paul Okoye, while speaking with THEWILL said that the PDP was right in declaring the seats of the 27 lawmakers that defected vacant because there is no noticeable crisis at the national level.
He said the PDP should approach the court saying INEC had no power to declare their seats vacant; it is only the court that has the power.
“I am not a lawyer, but in 2015, Hon. Ifedayo Abegunde of the Labour Party, who represented Akure South/North Federal Constituency of Ondo State, was sacked by the Supreme Court after he defected from the Labour Party to the Action Congress of Nigeria.
“In a unanimous verdict by the seven-man panel led by the then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, the apex court held that Abegunde’s defection could not be justified, since his excuse of purported division in the LP was not in existence in the “national structure” of the party.
“The court held that the division and factionalisation cited by Abegunde as his excuse for abandoning the LP was only at the state level”.
‘As far as the PDP is concerned, there is no division in existence in its national structure and so the defected Rivers lawmakers will lose their seats”, Okoye said.
THEWILL recalls that the state was thrown into a theatre of war late October when peace broke down, following seemingly irreconcilable political differences between Fubara and Wike had created tension and division in the state, leading to an attempt by the House of Assembly to impeach the governor which resulted in the bombing of a section of the assembly complex.
Governor Fubara and his aides were tear gassed by the police while on a visit to the complex to assess the level of damage caused by the explosion.
As a result, the state lawmakers later split into two factions – a faction backed by the governor and the second faction loyal to Wike.
Martin Amaewhule is the speaker of Wike’s faction, while Edison Ehie, a former leader of the assembly who was earlier removed for not supporting governor Fubara’s impeachment, is the speaker of the faction loyal to Fubara’s faction.
The two factions have repeatedly held parallel sittings at different locations in Port Harcourt.
In an apparent move to frustrate further sittings by the Wike-backed faction, the Rivers State Government in November redeployed the assembly clerk and his deputy to other ministries in the state.
The political crisis in the state has worsened despite mediation by President Tinubu. The two belligerents in the crisis, Wike and Fubara had earlier played down the crisis.
Wike once claimed that the crisis was a PDP affair and that the party was looking into it. Fubara also toed the same line when he said there was nothing wrong with a “father and a son” having problems, apparently referring to the rift between him and Wike, who helped install him as governor.
“For our dear State, I know everybody is wondering what’s going on and what’s not going on. We are okay; there is no problem,” he said.
“If we have an internal issue, it will be resolved, and everything will go back to normal.
“There is nothing wrong if a father and a son have a problem if there is any problem, but I don’t think there is anything; whatever it is, we will definitely resolve the issue,” the governor said.
However, Fubara recently changed conciliatory tone, vowing never to surrender the State to blackmail and intimidation.
According to him, the State is the people’s inheritance, insisting he would protect and defend it from blackmail.
Speaking with THEWILL on the crisis in River State, the former Deputy National Chairman and member of the Board of Trustees, (BoT) of the PDP, Chief Olabode George, said there is a need to resolve the crisis on time to prevent it from spreading to neighbouring states.
“Is it insurmountable? No, I am appealing to all sides to sheath their swords. This will not help the state of development in this country.
“Rivers State is a very important state electoral wise and when I read the fact that 27 of them left our party having been duly elected. I said look, we need to get some elders to stand up in the room and defend and resolve this crisis. It is not insurmountable. The way it is going, I read Papa Clark’s comment yesterday that this thing can start like a little flash if we don’t manage it, it will spread like a cancer.
“This is a litmus test for the ability of our party to survive after the mayhem we called election. The Supreme Court had already told us we lost, come back home, let us set up a committee to go there. The governor is still a member of the PDP. Let’s find out what exactly is happening in Rivers.
“And then they should call Wike, if he wants to come, he will also make his own statement. We have a National Vice Chairman from the South South, what is he doing now?. He must get involved. This is still a micro issue and we can still handle it. You know it starts like a little cancer before you know it, it will spread to Bayelsa, to Akwa Ibom.”
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
