Fubara-Rivers Assembly Crisis: Drumbeat Of War Resounds

• You’re Merely Playing To Gallery, It Has Backfired- RSHA Tells Fubara
• He Should Be Impeached If Rivers Assembly Deems It Fit, Nothing Will Happen-Wike
• I Was Locked Out Of Rivers Assembly, I Am Ready To Represent Budget- Fubara

The drumbeat of war is resounding loudly in Rivers State as the crisis between the Rivers State House of Assembly and Governor Siminalayi Fubara shows no signs of abating anytime soon.

The Matrix reports that the oil-rich south-south state has been enmeshed in political crisis following the conflict between Fubara and his predecessor and political godfather, FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.

Things took a turn for the worse for the Gov when on February 28, 2025, the Supreme Court dealt a quadruple blow to the Governor by barring the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant-General of the Federation from releasing statutory monthly allocations to Rivers state.

The apex court also directed the Martin Amaewhule-led State Assembly to resume sitting immediately with other elected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly; flayed governor Fubara for the demolition of the RSHA Complex describing it as an act of indiscipline bordering on the excessive use of executive might and declared the local government election conducted on the 5th of October 2024, by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission invalid for grossly violating the Electoral Act thereby sacking all the recently elected council chairmen.

Beaten, Fubara had promised to comply with the judgment of the apex court.

On Sunday, the Rivers governor invited the Amaewhule-led House of Assembly members to a meeting scheduled for Monday.

The FCT minister, however, criticised Fubara for writing to the state house of assembly, stating that he should have called Amaewhule and his team to arrange a meeting. He also described the letter from Fubara as “useless”.

A drama ensued at the Rivers State House of Assembly Quarters on Wednesday when Governor Fubara arrived at the venue but the entrance gate locked.

The security personnel at the quarters locked the gates when the governor’s convoy arrived.

The action of the security personnel was hinged on the position that there was no official communication between the governor and the Assembly.

However, Fubara said he communicated his coming to Speaker Martins Amaewhule through a letter and tried to call him on the phone since Tuesday.

Reacting, the RSHA debunked claims by Fubara that he was stopped from entering the Assembly to re-present the 2025 budget.

Rather, the Assembly accused Fubara of whipping up sentiment to paint the Assembly in bad light, a move they claimed has backfired.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Dr. Enemi Alabo George, who reacted to the claim in a statement in Port Harcourt, described it as a mere comedy skit scripted to paint the House in bad light.

He said the House never received any official communication from the governor on his readiness to present the appropriation bill to the lawmakers.

The spokesman said: “We were the ones, who immediately after that judgement appealed to the governor to bring his appropriation bill. We acted immediately because we have the interest of the state at heart and didn’t want Rivers people to suffer any harm.

“Despite withholding our entitlements for over a year and demolishing our chambers, we still wanted him to hasten up the presentation in the interest of the progress of Rivers.

“We indicated our intentions in that letter and even gave him a timeframe because of the urgency of the matter. To regularise his appointments, we also urged him during our subsequent sitting to submit the names of his nominees for the positions of commissioners and some boards’ membership for screening and confirmation.

“But the Governor rebuffed our pleas. We sent employees of the Assembly to deliver these resolutions to him but as usual they turned them down at the gate and even brutalized them. We resorted to engaging the services of a courier company.

“But he still did not heed our call forgetting that there are essential services like hospitals, schools and others to be funded. Our intention was to finish everything about the budget on March 15th so that we could send necessary information and documents to relevant agencies of the government to allow the release of Rivers allocations at the end of March. But with what he is doing, we don’t know what he wants to achieve.

“How can he turn around to claim that we blocked him from re-presenting his budget? This is the height of insincerity. We even need the budget to be passed because the governor has been owing us our entitlements for more than a year and without the budget we can’t get our entitlements.

“The Governor and his team simply and deliberately acted Wednesday’s drama with a singular motive to tarnish the image of the Assembly. The governor is simply playing to the gallery to whip up unnecessary sentiments. But it has backfired because the truth has come out.”

To further pile pressure on the embattled Governor, Wike had stated that Fubara should face impeachment if he violates the constitution.

This is even as he assured that the heavens will not fall if Fubara is impeached.

Speaking at the media chat in Abuja on Wednesday, Wike said politics should not be taken lightly and that removing the governor would not be a criminal offence.

“Politics is not play. If you have committed an offence to be impeached, what’s wrong? Is it a criminal offence? It’s provided in the constitution. Am I a member of the assembly?” Wike asked.

“If you have committed an infraction of the constitution, and the assembly deems it fit to say you should be impeached.

“I have heard people say, ‘Oh, if they impeach him, there will be a breakdown of law and order.’ Rubbish! Nothing will happen.”

While defending his commitment to legal procedures and fairness, Wike questioned how a handful of legislators could pass laws and expect them to be recognised as valid.

“I cannot believe that in this country, we are now at the point where Nigerians are talking about where three members of the house will sit and make a law, and they are talking about going to the supreme court,” he said.

“Speakers and assembly members are not our children; they were elected; they are not your boys or your girls.

“You sit with them and play with them. I travelled with my speakers, and I created relationships. It’s not a master-servant thing.”

On Monday, Tony Okocha, chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers state, asked Fubara to resign or face impeachment proceedings.

Okocha said that the recent supreme court ruling on the state’s political crisis is final, describing Fubara’s invitation to the Martin Amaewhule-led assembly faction for a meeting as a “Greek gift”.

Meanwhile, the embattled governor has expressed dissatisfaction over the action of the Rivers State House of Assembly which denied him entry to the RSHA quarters on Wednesday while expressing readiness to represent the state’s budget to the Assembly.

Fubara addressed residents of the Khana Local Government Area of the state during the commissioning of some health facilities shortly after the drama at the Assembly quarters.

The governor insisted that he communicated his intention to visit the lawmakers to Speaker Amaewhule before he showed up at the quarters to re-represent the 2025 Budget as directed by the Assembly following the verdict of the Supreme Court on February 28, 2025.

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“I still believe, maybe, they might be instructed later. If they are instructed, I’m still ready to come any day to get this particular issue sorted out,” the governor said.