Governor Fubara is in fresh trouble as 27 out of the 32 Rivers Lawmakers have dumped PDP for APC.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that a total of 27 Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have announced their defection from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
This Nigeria news platform reliably gathered that the lawmakers are believed to be loyalists of the former governor of the State and the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
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The lawmakers, including the factional Speaker, Rt. Hon. Matthew Amaewhule, announced their defection, in a letter read on the floor of the Assembly on Monday.
In addition, Enemi George, a member of the Assembly, confirmed to newsmen that the 27 legislators were under the guidance of Martin Amaewhule.
He said the decision was taken during their sitting on Monday morning.
In the letter signed by all 27 lawmakers and addressed to the state’s acting chairman of PDP, the defectors attribute their decision to quit the PDP to the division within the party’s national leadership.
Backstory
For weeks, Amaewhule and Edison Ehie have been entangled in a Speakership rivalry.
In October, the Assembly issued an impeachment notice to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, citing Amaewhule’s leadership.
Consequently, they ousted Ehie from the position of House leader. However, Fubara’s loyal Assembly members swiftly impeached Amaewhule, appointing Ehie as the new Speaker.
A dispute between Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), triggered the crisis in the 32-member Assembly.
The relationship between Wike and Fubara is said to have gone sour following the threat by the Assembly to impeach the governor.
Some have accused Wike of being the brain behind the impeachment plot.
Meanwhile,NewsOnline Nigeria had earlier reported that the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, were reportedly insisting on impeaching Governor Siminlayi Fubara of Rivers State.
This Nigeria news platform gathered that the members loyal to Wike were reportedly unrelenting in their plan to remove the governor, months after President Bola Tinubu waded into the political crisis in the South-South state.
According to Nigerian Tribune, the minister’s camp had reportedly re-strategised and mobilised necessary means to carry out the governor’s impeachment in the coming days.
The forces within the camp were said to have lobbied one of the major pro-Niger Delta groups that issued a stern warning against the planned removal of the governor to denounce its current unfavourable disposition towards the plot.
However, it was gathered that the minister’s camp was reportedly still bent on going ahead with the impeachment plan contrary to the president’s advice for ceasefire and truce, ostensibly because of the implications for the polity and stability in the region.
The camp is said to be deploying necessary means to solicit the full support of the agencies of states with coercive power to push for the impeachment.
While some members of the state House of Assembly opposed to the impeachment process are said to have been stripped of their security, eight other lawmakers sympathetic to the plot reportedly enjoy cover from law enforcement agents.
Recall that the relationship between Wike and Fubara went awry following the botched attempt by some members of the state House of Assembly loyal to Wike to impeach the governor.
The personality clash got to a head when a section of the assembly was set ablaze by suspected arsonists, who have neither been identified nor apprehended to face the law of the land.
Governor Fubara also alleged that gunmen attacked him when he led some of his top functionaries to the scene of the arson to ascertain the level of damage done to the infrastructure.
But Wike had shed light on the cold war with the governor after a meeting with some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors in his office in Abuja.
He said it was not true that he was seeking financial gratification from his successor but had claimed that Fubara was trying to hijack the PDP structure in Rivers.
Both Wike and Fubara are of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). But Wike noted that internal wranglings are common in politics and will be settled using the party’s mechanisms.
- “In politics, there are a lot of internal wranglings,” he said.
- “But to come out and say, ‘Oh they want to do this against me, it will not work.’ I had every power then to say where this thing is going. So, when things are wrong, you ask questions. It is a party affair. The party knows how they resolve their mechanism, it is not an ethnic affair.
- “Our party is coming to it, that is what I will say. Every politician has his interest,” the former governor added.
