Pro-Fubara Lawmakers Dismiss Estranged Colleagues’ Threat to Governor on Spending

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly led by Speaker Victor Oko-Jumbo, has dismissed the resolution passed by the Martin Amaewhule-led assembly, which forbade Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the State Government from withdrawing money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the State.

Lawmakers loyal to the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and led by Amaewhule, had written to Fubara threatening to shut down his expenditure from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state.

The resolution was reached on Monday, at the plenary presided over by Amaewhule.

But reacting to the threat, yesterday, the lawmakers loyal to Fubara wondered the basis of such audacity by the Amaewhule-led Assembly when their seats had been declared vacant on December 13, 2023, by Edison Ehie, who was then Speaker of the 10th State House of Assembly.

Oko-Jumbo stated: “The House states as follows: On the 11th Day of December, 2023, at the 87th Legislative sitting of the House, former Speaker, Martin Amaewhule and the 24 former members defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“By virtue of Section 109(1)(g) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution, which are self executing, and consequent upon their defection, on the 13th Day of December, 2023, Rt. Hon. Edison Ogerenye Ehie, DSSRS, Esq, PhD, as the then duly recognised Speaker of the 10th Rivers State House of Assembly, by virtue of a court order granted by Hon Justice Danagogo on the 12th Day of December, 2023, in Suit No. PHC/3030/CS/2023, and pursuant to Section 109(2) of the 1999 Constitution, declared their seats vacant.”

He, therefore, said it was “laughable to have heard and seen the news of the illegal sitting of the 25 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, led by Martin Amaewhule on television screens and social media space on the 15th Day of July, 2024.”

He noted that the resolution by the Amaewhule-led Assembly threatening that the House would declare a shutdown on expenditures, until an Appropriation Bill for the 2024 fiscal year was presented and passed, was illegal.