8th May, 2024
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked members of Rivers House of Assembly to resume impeachment proceedings against Rivers governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
The Caretaker chairman of APC in Rivers, Tony Okocha, made the demand at a press conference on Wednesday in Port Harcourt.
Okocha accused the Governor of insulting President Bola Tinubu.
According to him, if the lawmakers failed to restart the impeachment proceedings against the governor, he would invoke Party discipline upon them.
The lawmakers had halted their initial move to impeach Fubara following intervention of President Bola Tinubu.
“It’ll be foolhardy for us to sit down and see someone way less than Mr President insult him under our very nose.
“It is absurd to see the governor espouse impunity and intimidation on a people who are members of our political party, and we stand akimbo doing nothing.”
“As representatives of Mr President we won’t sit here and see the governor insult the President. We won’t sit here to see the governor declare on his own as if he’s a court to declare Assembly members’ seats vacant.”
“To that extent, in consultation with my Party, we are directing APC members who are in the Assembly to immediately commence the impeachment of Governor Sim Fubara.
“And if they don’t do that, there’s what they call Party discipline, and we shall invoke that section of the Constitution and deal decisively with them,” he stated.
The Rivers APC made the demand in response to criticisms levelled against members of the Rivers State House of Assembly on Monday.
The Governor, who said the House of Assembly members will lose legitimacy if he decides to derecognize them
According to him, he was still recognizing the governors because of the Peace Accord brokered by President Bola Tinubu between him and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike.
Fubara said, “Those group of men who claim that are Assembly members are not Assembly members, they are not existing. I want it to be on record. I accepted that Peace Accord to give them a floating. That is the truth. There was nothing in that Peace Accord that’s a constitutional issue; it’s a political solution to a problem. And I accepted it because these were people that were eating in my house, these were people I have helped paid their children’s school fees when I wasn’t even a governor. So, what is the thing there?
“We might have our division but I believe that one day, we could also come together but it has gotten to a time when I have to make a statement that they are not existing. Their existence is me allowing them to exist. If I de-recognise them, they are nowhere. I want you to see the sacrifice I have made in allowing peace to reign in our state.”