By Adesina Soyooye
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, said he signed the instrument which de-recognised Sir Celestine Omehia as a Governor of the State without looking back.
Wike made the comment on Friday when he signed the instrument which stripped Omehia of all benefits and privileges as a former Governor.
The Rivers State House of Assembly, in a surprise resolution during its Plenary on Thursday, October 6, 2022, stripped Omehia of all benefits. It not only did that, it asked Omehia to refund all monetary benefits he had received as a Governor and former Governor, including Pension, to the tune of N600m and N96.5m respectively. The Assembly also went further to strip Omehia of the State Honour of Grand Service Star of Rivers State, GSSRS, an honour reserved for former Governors of the State.
The Assembly gave Omehia a period of seven days to refund all the monies.
It hinged its resolution on the premise that Omehia was sacked by the Supreme Court which said he was never an elected Governor and, inexplicably, replaced him with Chibuike Amaechi who did not contest the election.
Amaechi had won the Governorship Primary, but was, surprisingly, disqualified by then President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for no reasonable reason.
Amaechi was replaced by Omehia who contested and won the election but was, a couple of months later, removed by the Supreme Court.
Not a few people say that the current humiliation of Omehia is a product of petty local politics. They allege that the Assembly suddenly went for Omehia’s juggler, and humiliated him on the prompting of Governor Wike.
Wike and Omehia, both of the PDP, were close political allies. It was under Wike’s Governorship that the last House of Assembly, in 2015, recognised Omehia as a former Governor, and restored all benefits due to him. That, also, was, allegedly, on the prompting of Wike.
However, a couple of months ago, Wike and Omehia fell apart over Omehia’s relationship with the PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, the man who defeated Wike at the Presidential Primary and refused to pick him as his running mate.
Since then, Wike has been at loggerheads with Atiku and the National Chairman of the PDP, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, who Wike holds responsible for Atiku’s emergence. Anybody, particularly, in Rivers State PDP, associating with Atiku, automatically becomes Wike’s enemy. He had threatened to deal with all of them. Omehia falls into that category, and the feeling is that Omehia’s ordeal is over his relationship with Atiku.
However, while signing the instrument which stripped Omehia of all benefits and privileges, Wike said Omehia’s fate had nothing to do with politics. He struggled to defend the Assembly, and praised members for having the courage to correct the wrong done in 2015 when Omehia was recognised as a former Governor. He said the members only just read the judgement of the Supreme Court and would have been in contempt of the apex Court, if Rivers State had continued to recognise Omehia as a former Governor.
Wike: “The Assembly has sent the resolution to me. I thank God today. Without looking back, I have signed it as an instrument, and it will be gazetted for record purposes.”
