Impeachment Threat Against Fubara: Pro-Wike Lawmakers, Merely Ranting – Rivers Elders

The Rivers State Elders’ Council has declared that the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to former Governor Nyesom Wike, lacked the legitimacy to carry out any impeachment against Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

The Council also said that the lawmakers do not possess any legitimacy whatsoever to take any other action since they had lost their seats following their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Rivers Elders Council which stated these while condemning the threat of impeachment against Governor Fubara by pro-Wike legislators, stressed that the impeachment threat was mere ranting.

A member of the Rivers Elders’ Council and pioneer spokesman of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Anabs Sara-Igbe, who stated the position of the Council, noted that the lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of the pro-Wike 27 lawmakers is before the Court of Appeal.

The pro-Wike lawmakers last week Saturday, threatened to revisit the impeachment proceedings against Fubara as a last resort to uphold the nation’s constitution.

The Assembly Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, who read the text at a press conference, accused Fubara of consistently acting outside the law despite being a signatory to the Abuja peace resolution superintended by President Bola Tinubu.

However, the Rivers Elders Council stressed that Governor Fubara does not have the power to legitimise the lawmakers, adding that it was just for the sake of peace that the governor gave them little recognition which is now making them to rant and doing what they like.

In the words of Sara-Igbe; “We are appearing before the Court of Appeal on April 8, 2024. When we appear, then we will know where they stand. They are only ranting because they are an illegitimate House of Assembly.

“It is quite unfortunate. If you tell the governor the implication of these things he does, he will not believe that these people that you think are making peace don’t mean well.

“But as I said, we are in court. So, let them continue to rant. We will see where it will end and the proud will be humiliated within a short while. Let them do whatever they like but, I can assure you, everything they are doing is illegal,” he said.

The lawmakers said they suspended the impeachment proceedings against Fubara after President Tinubu’s intervention in the crisis.

The renewed impeachment threat followed a press conference in Port Harcourt last week by a former National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, and members of the PDP Rivers State Presidential Campaign Council, where they declared support for Governor Fubara and gave Wike serious knocks just as they advised President Tinubu to be wary of his Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.