September 22, (THEWILL) — President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, held a closed-door meeting with Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Fubara, dressed in a white kaftan and black cap, arrived at the Villa at about 6:20 p.m.
THEWILL reports that it was the governor’s first engagement with the President since the lifting of the six-month emergency rule in Rivers State.
Tinubu had, on March 18, suspended Fubara, his deputy, Ngozi Odu, and the Rivers State House of Assembly, after declaring emergency rule in the state.
Speaking with the State House correspondents after the meeting, Fubara declared that he had made peace with his predecessor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike. He also stressed that Wike and he were now working together for the development of Rivers.
Asked if the peace accord between them was real or it was merely peace on paper, the governor said, “I don’t know what you mean by if this is a paper peace. As far as I’m concerned, we have made peace. Fubara and his principal are working together.”
On what prompted his visit to President Tinubu, Fubara stated that he was at the seat of power to brief the president and tell him he was back from suspension and had since last week resumed duty.
He added that the president also used the forum to guide him on how to go about governance, again, in the state without crisis.
“You’re aware that suspension was lifted midnight September 17, and I came in on the 19th. Ideally, it’s proper for me to see Mr President and to tell him that I’m back, and I’ve also resumed my responsibility as the governor of Rivers State. It’s not much. It’s father-son discussion, telling him thank you and the areas where, if at all, there should be any issue for him to guide me properly so we don’t be in any situation of crisis. That’s all”, he said.
Asked what specifically Tinubu told him, the governor said the president gave him guidance on how to go about things in the state.
“What he said to me? He advised me on what to do and how to go about it in the right direction”, Fubara said.
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