Twenty-Seven Rivers Lawmakers Oppose Fubara – Wike

Twenty-seven Rivers lawmakers oppose Fubara – Wike

By Charles Brown

The FCT minister boasted that he will defeat Governor Fubara and all those backing him.

As the feud between Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, intensified, Mr Wike on Friday said that 27 out of 31 lawmakers in the Rivers House of Assembly are against Mr Fubara.

Rivers State has been thrown into a political crisis since late October following an attempt by some lawmakers to impeach Governor Fubara which resulted in the bombing of a section of the assembly complex.

The Rivers assembly had since then split into two factions – one loyal to Mr Wike who is now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and the other faction loyal to Mr Fubara.

Martin Amaewhule is the speaker of the faction backed by Mr Wike while Edison Ehie, a former leader of the assembly who was removed for not supporting Governor Fubara’s impeachment is the speaker of the faction loyal to the governor.

The two factions on Tuesday held parallel sittings. The faction supporting Mr Wike reportedly held a plenary at the partly damaged House of Assembly Complex, a development that triggered the redeployment of the clerk of the assembly and his deputy by the state government.

Addressing reporters on the political crisis in the state on Friday in Abuja, Mr Wike sounded tough against Governor Fubara, implying that the impeachment plot may not be over yet.

“In all circumstances be grateful. No good politician would support that kind of thing but we keep quiet. I told everybody to keep quiet.

“Let me tell you, you have 31 members in the House of Assembly, 27 are against you,” Mr Wike said, referring to Governor Fubara.

Asked if he sanctioned the impeachment against his successor, the FCT minister responded, “If they are impeaching you,” referring to his successor, “did you call me?”

The interview was held by TVC news

Continuing, Mr Wike said: “Assuming I am the one who plotted your impeachment for example, did you call me and said, ‘Sir they want to impeach me.’”

The minister accused the governor of sending “people to go and burn” part of the assembly complex as a way of fighting off the impeachment plot.

“Impeachment process, is it a one-day affair? Then you raised ethnic politics. When the law speaks, hungry militants, ethnicity will run away, the law has not spoken,” Mr Wike said.

‘I will win them, mark it today’

Despite glaring evidence of a feud with Mr Fubara, the minister said he did not have a problem with the governor but that he was only asking him (Fubara) not to destroy the political structure that brought him to power. “I will not let that happen,” Mr Wike said.

He said all the people who cannot fight him are rallying round Mr Fubara but vowed to defeat them at the appropriate time.

“First of all you have shown Nigerians that this is who I am. Some people even pretend for one or two years before showing their true colours – three months.

Mr Wike dismissed suggestions that he may be going through the same experience he caused Rotimi Amaechi to go through when Mr Amaechi was governor of Rivers and he, a federal minister in President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

Mr Wike was the chief of staff to Mr Amaechi when the latter was the Rivers governor but both men became rivals when Mr Amaechi became minister under President Jonathan, and have been engaged in a perennial political battle till now.