Apologises to Rivers people over his choice of successor, says he made a mistake; will be corrected at appropriate time
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, a Lawyer, has assured members of the Rivers House of Assembly loyal to him that nobody can remove them from office. Wike gave this assurance inspite of a Court order which restrained them from parading themselves as Rivers State Assembly members.
Wike, the immediate past Governor of the State spoke in Ogogbolo Rivers State on Saturday in his first reaction to the ruling on Friday by a Rivers State High Court, which asked the 27 Lawmakers loyal to Wike, including Speaker Martin Amaewhule, to stop parading themselves as Members of the Assembly.
The 27 Members had, on their own, resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the Party under which they were elected into office, for the All Progressives Congress, APC. They did so in the heat of the disagreement between Wike and Governor Siminalayi Fubara. However, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria says that once one resigns from the Party under which one was elected, one automatically loses one’s seat in that office.
But Wike, in a seeming mockery of the Court, boasted and assured them nobody can remove them from office.
In continuation of his bitter disagreement with the Governor over what some people allege is his desire to control the Governor and run the State from Abuja, he told the people, without mentioning the Governor’s name, that he made a mistake in his choice (of successor). He, therefore, asked them to forgive him, and assured that the mistake he made will be corrected at the appropriate time.
Many people has since interpreted that to mean that the Governor will eventually be removed from office by Assembly members loyal to him.
The disagreement between Wike and Fubara became public when the 27 members of the Assembly were involved in an aborted move to impeach the Governor because of his differences with Wike.
The Governor rallied thousands of Rivers people, angry at what they saw as Wike’s overbearing interference in the State, and resisted the impeachment move. And, even though President Bola Tinubu had intervened to make peace between political godfather and son, the peace deal has not worked as the Assembly members seem to be all out to grind governance in the State to a halt, triggering a response at such times by the Governor. The result is the crisis in the House of Assembly which has produced three Speakers since inauguration.
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