12th November, 2024
By Philip Yatai
Mr Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, has cautioned Afenifere Chieftain, Dr Femi Okurounmu against getting involved in Rivers crisis, especially if he is not ready to speak objectively.
Olayinka said this while reacting to the statement by Okurounmu that President Bola Tinubu has laid back on the ongoing crisis in Rivers in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday/
The media aide who asked Okurounmu what exactly he expected Tinubu to have done while blaming the protracted crises in Rivers on Gov. Siminalayi Fubara’s lawlessness.
He said Tinubu could not have overruled the various judicial pronouncements and join Fubara in his reign of lawlessness?
He cautioned the chieftain to avoid getting involved in matters capable of ridiculing his status as an elder statesman, especially matters on which he would not speak objectively.
He described as “strange”, that Okurounmu, a former Senator could opt to be playing ostrich to the avalanche of disobedience to court judgments by Fubara.
According to him, such an affront on the judiciary is endangering democracy and peace in the country.
“One is however not too amazed, because Okurounmu holds the record of being the first Senator to be suspended by his colleagues out of the seven Senators that have been suspended since 1999 till date.”
Okurounmu had also accused the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, of being the architect and mastermind of Rivers’ crisis.
He had argued that even if Fubara was his godson, Wike should be told that he could not be his surrogate as a sitting governor with full powers.
But Olayinka said that Wike had never asked Gov. Fubara to be his surrogate, nor asked him not to function as the Governor of Rivers.
He stressed that Okurounmu, as an elder, should be honest enough to stand before the mirror and ask himself the roles he played in Fubara becoming governor.
“In Yorubaland, when two children are fighting, what the elders do is to sit them down and listen to their sides of the conflict.
“Elders don’t just sit in their bedrooms and apportion blame as done by Baba Femi Okurounmu.
“Was it Wike that went to the Rivers State House of Assembly Complex and set it on fire so as to prevent duly elected lawmakers from carrying out their duties?
“Was it Wike that has been illegally using three members out of the 32-member State House of Assembly to carry out legislative business in Rivers State, including passing the State Budget as well as screening and confirming commissioners, when the constitution says that budget can only be passed by two-third of the Assembly members?
He pointed out that Gov Fubara had been ignoring judgments of the courts concerning his regime of lawlessness in Rivers.
He pointed out that a Court of Appeal in Abuja had on Oct. 10 affirmed a lower court’s decision nullifying the Rivers State’s 2024 budget signed into law and being operated by Fubara.
“Did the governor obey the judgment?
“Is it not shocking that Okurounmu had chosen to ignore the danger Gov. Fubara’s deliberate affronts on the rule of law pose to democracy and peace in Nigeria? He asked.
A Federal High Court in Abuja had on Oct. 30, barred the Central Bank of Nigeria from disbursing further monthly allocations to the Rivers Government.
In her ruling, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik cited alleged constitutional violations by Gov. Fubara and described his presentation of the 2024 budget to a four-member House of Assembly as “breached constitutional protocol”.
On his part, Fubara, on Nov. 4, blamed the current political crisis in the state on resource control and vowed to ensure the protection of the state’s resources. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
