In response to the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who defected to the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party announced on Monday that it would write the Independent National Election today (Tuesday) to demand new elections.
A total of 27 House members, who were elected on the PDP platform on Monday, turned against the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and threatened to refuse his demands for approval.
According to the letters written to Speaker Martin Amaewhule and read aloud on the House floor, the party’s division over the competition for the National Secretary post had made communication channels difficult, and this was the reason given for their defection.
Nyesom Wike, the state’s governor at the time, is said to have purchased nomination forms for numerous PDP heavyweights, including Fubara, in advance of the 2023 governorship contest.
However, it was rumored that Wike selected Fubara, the state’s accountant general at the time. This led to a rift among party leaders, who claimed Fubara wasn’t a politician and wasn’t involved in the conflict.
However, a few months ago, parliamentarians who supported Wike sought to impeach the current governor, which caused Fubara and his predecessor to collapse. A portion of the state House of Assembly was completely destroyed by fire during the crisis.
The House became divided as a result of the governor’s impeachment efforts, with Speaker Amaewhule heading one party and House Leader Edison Ehie leading the other.
In an interview with The PUNCH on Monday, PDP National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba responded to the lawmakers’ defection by saying the party would take all necessary measures to regain its seats in the state House of Assembly.
PDP leader Ologunagba declared, “We will write to INEC tomorrow (Tuesday) to make our position known.” The PDP is a party that upholds the law.
“You cannot pre-empt our steps and our party,” the PDP press secretary said in response to a question about what the party would do if INEC denied its request. We are aware of and comprehend the law. We’ll approach each state separately. I promise that the PDP will consider every possibility.
In a previous statement, Ologunagba said that the seats of the 27 MPs had become empty due to their departure from the PDP, citing Section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
“A member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if… (g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected, the party added,” as stated in Section 109 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, for the avoidance of doubt.
According to Ologunagba, the 27 members who defected had resigned their seats, lost their privileges, recognition, and all accrued obligations as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, as per the Supreme Court’s view.
However, the governor said nothing when the lawmakers joined the APC.
The governor, who chaired the state executive council meeting on Monday and oversaw the approval of the N800 billion budget projection for 2024, remained silent regarding the MPs’ departure from his party.
It was noted that the plenary meeting on Monday, when the state lawmakers decided to abstain, was held under tight police surveillance beginning at approximately eight in the morning.
The Rivers State Local Government Law (Amendment) Bill, 2023, sponsored by Majority Jack, the House Leader and Member for the Akuku Toru Constituency, was also given a Second Reading by the House during the session.
During the bill’s debate, members unanimously agreed that parts of the main legislation that were antithetical to democracy ought to be changed in order to protect elected local government officials from the whims and avarices of a single person.
Within two weeks, the Speaker assigned the bill to the House Committee on Local Government, requesting that it hold a public hearing and provide more legislative suggestions.
Additionally, the House accepted a motion introduced by Sylvanus Nwankwo, the member for Omuma constituency, and supported by 26 members denouncing the state governor’s refusal to turn over suspects responsible for setting the Assembly’s hallowed chamber on fire to security agencies as well as the seizure of funds intended for the Assembly’s management.
After adopting the motion’s prayers, the House vehemently denounced the illegal assault on the members and the Rivers State Assembly as a whole.
They demanded that the state governor turn over the factional Speaker, Edison Ehie, Chijioke Ihunwo, and other people they believed to be suspects in the explosion at the Assembly right once.
They emphasized that the House would no longer grant Fubara’s requests for approval because his actions were no longer in compliance with the state’s current laws and the 1999 Constitution as amended. They also called on the governor to immediately release funds intended for the management of the Assembly for the month of November 2023.
Darlington Nwauju, the spokesman for the disbanded APC Executive Council in Rivers State, responded to the defection by saying the PDP lawmakers’ departure had validated the party.
Speaking to one of our journalists on Monday, Nwauju said that the five APC executive members’ legal action to suspend the now-dissolved party, which was headed by Emeka Beke and the party’s legal counsel, was intended to undermine the party and turn it over to Wike.
“People said it was a lie when we also said that everything that was going on was illegal and was planned specifically to destabilize the APC in Rivers State and ultimately turn it over to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory,” the speaker remarked.
CSOs alert law enforcement
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Olatunji Disu, the state commissioner of police, has been forewarned by the coalition of Rivers Civil Society Groups not to take a position in the political dispute involving state actors.
Speaking to reporters, the group’s spokesperson, Solomon Lenu, pleaded with Disu not to emulate a former CP member who was allegedly involved in acts of anarchy in the state in 2013.
“The Commissioner of Police and his men should remain neutral in this matter and follow the court’s orders by preventing any of the two factions from entering the Assembly complex,” he declared.
“In Rivers State, we desire peace, not chaos. We stress that the President ought to advise his minister to give peace a chance and let Governor Fubara fulfill his duties as a governor legitimately elected by the people of the Rivers state.
We might be forced by Wike’s actions to relocate to Abuja and take over his office in protest. Lenu said that the FCT minister was determined to use the state’s illegal MPs to plunge the state into chaos, and that this should serve as a warning to him and his legislators.
APC praises lawmakers
However, the APC celebrated the departure of 27 members of the 32-member House of Assembly from the state’s ruling PDP on Monday, calling it a positive step.
A few hours had passed since the 27 new converts were accepted by the APC Caretaker Executive Committee in Rivers at its party secretariat when there was applause.
The APC National Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, gave credit for the action to the party’s open door policy and the political revolution occurring in Rivers during an exclusive phone conversation with The PUNCH.
“This is a state affair,” he declared. But we are observing at the federal level. Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, the National Chairman of the APC, has made it abundantly evident to everyone who will listen that he is bringing an open door policy to the party.
Additionally, he hopes to expand the APC’s base of support in a way that would accommodate new members and solidify the existing group’s settlement.
“Ganduje wants to invite everyone who may still harbor resentment toward the party’s operations to join Mr. President’s Renewed Hope agenda by holding out an olive branch.
Therefore, I think that what is taking place in Rivers State is a sort of acknowledgment or acceptance of the offer made by the national chairman. Attending the party will, in my opinion, also signal the start of something better.
But as I said before, this is a matter for the state. Whatever the cause of the flaw, the APC, a progressive organization, welcomes new members as long as they are willing to contribute to the advancement of Nigerian democracy.
Edwin Olofu, Ganduje’s media assistant, also informed one of our correspondents that it was evidence of the revolution and changes his principal had implemented within the party.
“As a political party, we welcome new members at all times. He stated, “It’s clear that since the President and the APC national chairman took office, people have been seeing the excellent things they’ve been doing.
Acting State Chairman of the Rivers APC, Tony Okocha, pledged during his acceptance address at the secretariat in Port Harcourt that the party will treat the 27 legislators with the same dignity, respect, and consideration as each and every member of the state.
The Ijaw National Congress urged President Bola Tinubu to put pressure on Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and his allies to halt their efforts to remove Rivers State Governor Siminialayi Fubara from office.
At the same time, the INC denounced what it described as the overt backing of security agencies for the Martins Amaewhule-led group of state legislators who backed Wike.
According to the INC, the police protected the Wike supporters in their attempt to have a sitting in defiance of an ongoing court injunction directing all parties to preserve the status quo and refrain from taking any official action until further notice.
“Mr. President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, we implore you once again to call Mr. Wike and those Federal Government agencies and agents who are putting Rivers State at risk of anarchy, to order,” the INC said in a statement signed by its president, Prof. Benjamin Okaba, on Monday. The statement noted that it was curious that despite prior interventions by Tinubu and other crucial stakeholders, Wike was bent on ensuring Fubara’s impeachment. Eventually, these factors would be detrimental to Nigeria’s stability, according to Okaba.
A budget estimate of N800 billion was discussed and agreed by the Rivers State Executive Council on Monday for government spending in the 2024 fiscal year.
The council also endorsed renaming the budget the “Budget of Renewed Hope, Consolidation, and Continuity” during the Fubara-led meeting held in the Executive Chamber of Government House in Port Harcourt.
After the meeting, Joseph Johnson, the state commissioner for information and communications, told reporters that N412 billion was expected to be spent on major projects and N361 billion on recurrent expenses.
“We had the fifth council meeting of Rivers State,” he said. We talked about the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, which is often the first thing we talk about before the budget.
The budget estimate was also included in an 83-page paper that was provided. The projected budget for 2024 is titled “Budget of Renewed Hope, Consolidation, and Continuity” and amounts to N800 billion.
“Essentially, the budget is focused on some key areas with infrastructure taking the lead with N128 billion of the budget followed by education, health, and security,” the spokesman for the Rivers State Government continued.
The authorized budget estimate, according to Dr. Tammy Danagogo, Secretary to the Rivers State Government, is meant to instill hope in the people of Rivers and ensure the ongoing development of human capital and projects.
Danagogo stated, “We approved an estimated budget of N800,392,485,433.33 kobo, which we think the public will be able to see and understand all the projections and fundamentals by the time it gets to the state House of Assembly.”
The budget’s main goals are to “give the people and residents of Rivers State the Renewed Hope” and to make sure that the harvest of projects the state has been working on, along with other areas like investment drive, ease of doing business, security, and human capital development, are all consolidated and continued.
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PDP replaces 27 pro-Wike Assembly defectors amid the Rivers crisis
December 12, 2023
Fubara 2 Siminalayi
Siminalayi Fubara, the governor of Rivers State
Daniels Igoni, Adebayo Folorunsho-Francis, Dennis Naku, and Abdulrahman Zakariyau
Please tell this story:
In response to the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who defected to the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party announced on Monday that it would write the Independent National Election today (Tuesday) to demand new elections.
A total of 27 House members, who were elected on the PDP platform on Monday, turned against the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and threatened to refuse his demands for approval.
According to the letters written to Speaker Martin Amaewhule and read aloud on the House floor, the party’s division over the competition for the National Secretary post had made communication channels difficult, and this was the reason given for their defection.
Nyesom Wike, the state’s governor at the time, is said to have purchased nomination forms for numerous PDP heavyweights, including Fubara, in advance of the 2023 governorship contest.
However, it was rumored that Wike selected Fubara, the state’s accountant general at the time. This led to a rift among party leaders, who claimed Fubara wasn’t a politician and wasn’t involved in the conflict.
However, a few months ago, parliamentarians who supported Wike sought to impeach the current governor, which caused Fubara and his predecessor to collapse. A portion of the state House of Assembly was completely destroyed by fire during the crisis.
The House became divided as a result of the governor’s impeachment efforts, with Speaker Amaewhule heading one party and House Leader Edison Ehie leading the other.
In an interview with The PUNCH on Monday, PDP National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba responded to the lawmakers’ defection by saying the party would take all necessary measures to regain its seats in the state House of Assembly.
PDP leader Ologunagba declared, “We will write to INEC tomorrow (Tuesday) to make our position known.” The PDP is a party that upholds the law.
“You cannot pre-empt our steps and our party,” the PDP press secretary said in response to a question about what the party would do if INEC denied its request. We are aware of and comprehend the law. We’ll approach each state separately. I promise that the PDP will consider every possibility.
In a previous statement, Ologunagba said that the seats of the 27 MPs had become empty due to their departure from the PDP, citing Section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
“A member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if… (g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected, the party added,” as stated in Section 109 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, for the avoidance of doubt.
According to Ologunagba, the 27 members who defected had resigned their seats, lost their privileges, recognition, and all accrued obligations as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, as per the Supreme Court’s view.
However, the governor said nothing when the lawmakers joined the APC.
The governor, who chaired the state executive council meeting on Monday and oversaw the approval of the N800 billion budget projection for 2024, remained silent regarding the MPs’ departure from his party.
It was noted that the plenary meeting on Monday, when the state lawmakers decided to abstain, was held under tight police surveillance beginning at approximately eight in the morning.
The Rivers State Local Government Law (Amendment) Bill, 2023, sponsored by Majority Jack, the House Leader and Member for the Akuku Toru Constituency, was also given a Second Reading by the House during the session.
During the bill’s debate, members unanimously agreed that parts of the main legislation that were antithetical to democracy ought to be changed in order to protect elected local government officials from the whims and avarices of a single person.
Within two weeks, the Speaker assigned the bill to the House Committee on Local Government, requesting that it hold a public hearing and provide more legislative suggestions.
Additionally, the House accepted a motion introduced by Sylvanus Nwankwo, the member for Omuma constituency, and supported by 26 members denouncing the state governor’s refusal to turn over suspects responsible for setting the Assembly’s hallowed chamber on fire to security agencies as well as the seizure of funds intended for the Assembly’s management.
After adopting the motion’s prayers, the House vehemently denounced the illegal assault on the members and the Rivers State Assembly as a whole.
They demanded that the state governor turn over the factional Speaker, Edison Ehie, Chijioke Ihunwo, and other people they believed to be suspects in the explosion at the Assembly right once.
They emphasized that the House would no longer grant Fubara’s requests for approval because his actions were no longer in compliance with the state’s current laws and the 1999 Constitution as amended. They also called on the governor to immediately release funds intended for the management of the Assembly for the month of November 2023.
Darlington Nwauju, the spokesman for the disbanded APC Executive Council in Rivers State, responded to the defection by saying the PDP lawmakers’ departure had validated the party.
Speaking to one of our journalists on Monday, Nwauju said that the five APC executive members’ legal action to suspend the now-dissolved party, which was headed by Emeka Beke and the party’s legal counsel, was intended to undermine the party and turn it over to Wike.
“People said it was a lie when we also said that everything that was going on was illegal and was planned specifically to destabilize the APC in Rivers State and ultimately turn it over to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory,” the speaker remarked.
CSOs alert law enforcement
Advertised Articles
Olatunji Disu, the state commissioner of police, has been forewarned by the coalition of Rivers Civil Society Groups not to take a position in the political dispute involving state actors.
Speaking to reporters, the group’s spokesperson, Solomon Lenu, pleaded with Disu not to emulate a former CP member who was allegedly involved in acts of anarchy in the state in 2013.
“The Commissioner of Police and his men should remain neutral in this matter and follow the court’s orders by preventing any of the two factions from entering the Assembly complex,” he declared.
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The PDP wants to replace the 27 Rivers lawmakers who defected.
“In Rivers State, we desire peace, not chaos. We stress that the President ought to advise his minister to give peace a chance and let Governor Fubara fulfill his duties as a governor legitimately elected by the people of the Rivers state.
We might be forced by Wike’s actions to relocate to Abuja and take over his office in protest. Lenu said that the FCT minister was determined to use the state’s illegal MPs to plunge the state into chaos, and that this should serve as a warning to him and his legislators.
APC praises lawmakers
However, the APC celebrated the departure of 27 members of the 32-member House of Assembly from the state’s ruling PDP on Monday, calling it a positive step.
A few hours had passed since the 27 new converts were accepted by the APC Caretaker Executive Committee in Rivers at its party secretariat when there was applause.
The APC National Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, gave credit for the action to the party’s open door policy and the political revolution occurring in Rivers during an exclusive phone conversation with The PUNCH.
“This is a state affair,” he declared. But we are observing at the federal level. Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, the National Chairman of the APC, has made it abundantly evident to everyone who will listen that he is bringing an open door policy to the party.
Additionally, he hopes to expand the APC’s base of support in a way that would accommodate new members and solidify the existing group’s settlement.
“Ganduje wants to invite everyone who may still harbor resentment toward the party’s operations to join Mr. President’s Renewed Hope agenda by holding out an olive branch.
Therefore, I think that what is taking place in Rivers State is a sort of acknowledgment or acceptance of the offer made by the national chairman. Attending the party will, in my opinion, also signal the start of something better.
But as I said before, this is a matter for the state. Whatever the cause of the flaw, the APC, a progressive organization, welcomes new members as long as they are willing to contribute to the advancement of Nigerian democracy.
Edwin Olofu, Ganduje’s media assistant, also informed one of our correspondents that it was evidence of the revolution and changes his principal had implemented within the party.
“As a political party, we welcome new members at all times. He stated, “It’s clear that since the President and the APC national chairman took office, people have been seeing the excellent things they’ve been doing.
Acting State Chairman of the Rivers APC, Tony Okocha, pledged during his acceptance address at the secretariat in Port Harcourt that the party will treat the 27 legislators with the same dignity, respect, and consideration as each and every member of the state.
The Ijaw National Congress urged President Bola Tinubu to put pressure on Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and his allies to halt their efforts to remove Rivers State Governor Siminialayi Fubara from office.
At the same time, the INC denounced what it described as the overt backing of security agencies for the Martins Amaewhule-led group of state legislators who backed Wike.
According to the INC, the police protected the Wike supporters in their attempt to have a sitting in defiance of an ongoing court injunction directing all parties to preserve the status quo and refrain from taking any official action until further notice.
“Mr. President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, we implore you once again to call Mr. Wike and those Federal Government agencies and agents who are putting Rivers State at risk of anarchy, to order,” the INC said in a statement signed by its president, Prof. Benjamin Okaba, on Monday. The statement noted that it was curious that despite prior interventions by Tinubu and other crucial stakeholders, Wike was bent on ensuring Fubara’s impeachment. Eventually, these factors would be detrimental to Nigeria’s stability, according to Okaba.
A budget estimate of N800 billion was discussed and agreed by the Rivers State Executive Council on Monday for government spending in the 2024 fiscal year.
The council also endorsed renaming the budget the “Budget of Renewed Hope, Consolidation, and Continuity” during the Fubara-led meeting held in the Executive Chamber of Government House in Port Harcourt.
After the meeting, Joseph Johnson, the state commissioner for information and communications, told reporters that N412 billion was expected to be spent on major projects and N361 billion on recurrent expenses.
“We had the fifth council meeting of Rivers State,” he said. We talked about the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, which is often the first thing we talk about before the budget.
The budget estimate was also included in an 83-page paper that was provided. The projected budget for 2024 is titled “Budget of Renewed Hope, Consolidation, and Continuity” and amounts to N800 billion.
“Essentially, the budget is focused on some key areas with infrastructure taking the lead with N128 billion of the budget followed by education, health, and security,” the spokesman for the Rivers State Government continued.
The authorized budget estimate, according to Dr. Tammy Danagogo, Secretary to the Rivers State Government, is meant to instill hope in the people of Rivers and ensure the ongoing development of human capital and projects.
Danagogo stated, “We approved an estimated budget of N800,392,485,433.33 kobo, which we think the public will be able to see and understand all the projections and fundamentals by the time it gets to the state House of Assembly.”
The budget’s main goals are to “give the people and residents of Rivers State the Renewed Hope” and to make sure that the harvest of projects the state has been working on, along with other areas like investment drive, ease of doing business, security, and human capital development, are all consolidated and continued.
