BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
As the crises ravaging the Rivers State House of Assemble linger, party chieftains, lawyers and other critical stakeholders have continued to express concern in divergent views of what the consequences would be.
Some are of the opinion that what led to the crises are far from being approached by both parties, which indicates that the feud may not end any time soon.
The beneficiary to the defection of the 27 lawmakers, All Progressives Congress, has vowed to protect them at all cost and even use it as a pedestal to take over the political identity of the state which has remained under the firm grip of the PDP since the return to democracy in 1999.
Chairman of the state Caretaker Committee of the APC, Tony Okocha, last week dared Governor Sim Fubara over the demolition of the state house of assembly complex to prevent the majority 27 members from sitting.
He warned that there is nothing the governor can do about the fate that has befallen his administration and the people of Rivers State which has led to the defection of the 27 lawmakers from the PDP to the APC thereby making the APC a majority in the house.
Okocha speaking to the four lawmakers the governor is working with said, “You cannot place something on nothing and you expect it to stand. An illegality is an illegality.
He argued that what makes an assembly is not the structure, but the human beings in that assembly and claimed that an assembly can be moved to anywhere provided the Mace which is the symbol of authority is there.
He said as of Wednesday last week, about 27 members sat and took the far-reaching decision on state matters which they signed underneath those decisions.
While blaming the PDP, Okocha said, “It is not like we have a breakdown of law and order. But, this is an internal wrangling in PDP. That they are moving and being allowed to be taken to the centre stage. I had warned the governor or rather advised him. I told him you are opening your flanks to the fifth columnist. And they will feast.
“These same fifth columnists that will come to feast will be the ones that will be singing your praises. And today, he has left governance completely and begins to chase shadows.
Those infrastructural developments that Rivers State is noted for have begun to be atrophied.
“They are rotting away, including projects that the former governor has completed up to 100% and he left it for him to come to commission. He is unable to do anything and he is just after and chasing the mouse even when his house is burning. So there is complete lack of government and governance in Rivers State, and APC being a party now in opposition will not allow it.”
“If you remember what happened in Enugu State some years back when some lawmakers joined a former governor and defected, they later realised they made a great mistake. Today, some of them have not recovered from the devastation. They are no longer politically relevant. I foresee this happening to these lawmakers. Wait and watch”
He maintained that today, APC is in overwhelming majority in the Rivers State House of Assembly having 27 out of the 32 members.
“This is in line with the mandate of the National Chairman who charged us to reach out even to members of the opposition political parties,” Okocha added.
In agreement with him, the spokesman for APC in the state, Darlington Nwauju, said that it is only the court that is in a position to declare as vacant the seats of the 27 House of Assembly members who have officially announced their defection to the APC.
Nevertheless, the national leadership of the PDP has said it is working tirelessly to resolve the political crises.
Its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, was quoted as saying that the action of the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, who declared the seats of the 27 members that defected to the APC vacant, was in order.
Another PDP Chieftain, Ikenga Adighibemma, said the situation in Rivers State is already under control. He said the governor has effectively taken charge and in the end those lawmakers will go cap in hand begging the governor to help them recover their lost political relevance.
“If you remember what happened in Enugu State some years back when some lawmakers joined a former governor and defected, they later realised they made a great mistake. Today, some of them have not recovered from the devastation. They are no longer politically relevant. I foresee this happening to these lawmakers. Wait and watch.”
The spokesperson for the PDP in Rivers State, Tambari Sydney Gbara, claimed that the party was not aware of the reasons advanced by the 27 members of the state House of Assembly for their defection.
According to him, “Every adult has freedom of association, and as a party, we have taken the action as it happened, and we are moving on.”
He said the demolition of the House of Assembly complex by the governor was purely an executive matter, and also described the declaration of the seats of the 27 lawmakers who joined the APC vacant as a purely legislative issue.
He also said the party was still reaching out to the defected lawmakers to see if they could rescind their decisions.
Legal luminaries are in disagreement over the matter. While some have said that it was constitutionally right for the Speaker to declare the seats of the defected lawmakers to the APC vacant, others have said such a declaration could only be made by the courts.
A Port Harcourt based civil engineer who preferred anonymity said the decision taken by the governor to demolish the complex was a right decision because the building had suffered a great shock from the explosion.
He said since fire had gutted the building, it could collapse at any time and if such happens while the lawmakers are in session, then both the country and state would suffer great losses.
Corroborating, the former Commissioner for Information and Communications Paulinus Nsirim said the governor wants to build a more befitting edifice for the House of Assembly.
He recalled that the immediate past governor also demolished the lawmakers’ quarters and built more befitting quarters for them.
Still on the matter of declaring a member’s seat vacant, a lawyer and political commentator, Remi Lombert said the Speaker of the state House of Assembly has the constitutional power to declare the seats of the members who defected to the APC vacant, but noted that due process must be followed.
“When seats are constitutionally declared vacant, in line with the provisions of the constitution, whatever is done by the remnants will be lawful. The law is clear on that. So, the issue of 1/3 of the members counts for those lawmakers whose seats are intact. If they are eight or nine, the 1/3 anyone would be talking at that time is 1/3 of eight or nine. Those whose seats are declared vacant are no longer among the number.”
On the demolition of the Assembly building, Lombert said, “I learnt that the complex was gutted by fire and needed to be rebuilt. The governor said the devastation is beyond rehabilitation so he chose to reconstruct, which I feel is a right decision provided there is no political secrecy involved.”
Another lawyer Kabir Jiwa, however, disagreed with his colleague. He said the House has no such power to declare any member’s seat vacant in the circumstances of the case.
In agreement with the APC spokesman in the state, Jiwa said it is the court that can declare seats vacant.
He said, politicians have bastardized our law. “Under the law, a House of Assembly can only be properly constituted if the requisite quorum is formed. And to form a quorum, the House needs not less than one third of its members but the politicians do whatever they like. Five members are not up to the number that can form a quorum in the River State House of Assembly as they need not less than 10 or 11 members to form a quorum. Any action purportedly taken becomes illegal and whosoever implements such actions acts illegally too.
Jiwa said, “Without mincing words, the demolition of the House of Assembly is a tragedy. This is the same thing done in Edo State and that dangerous precedent was set and history is now repeating itself because nobody condemned it. However, the demolition does not prevent the House business from being carried on within the assembly complex and it remains legal.
The law only forbids sitting outside the assembly complex.”
He wondered why those who enjoyed the people’s mandate mishandled the affairs of the people because of selfishness.
The Labour Party National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, was of the opinion that the House of Assembly has the powers as bestowed on them by the Constitution in Section 109, subsection 1(g) to declare seats vacant when the occupiers cross-carpet.
He said, “When you contest an election under a particular party, you have to serve out that particular seat before you defect. If by any reason you want to leave, you have to drop the ticket because it is the party that sponsored you. You didn’t come on your own.
Ifoh noted, “What the constitution says is 1/3 of legal members of the state assembly. And as it is now, the legal members of the state assembly in Rivers State are six because the other 27 have given up their positions. They are no longer members. They are former members. And what is remaining now is only six members and 1/3 of that six members can take decisions. It is lawful. And the law has already recognized Ehie as the Speaker of the state. So whatever decision Ehie takes with that body of five or six is correct and is lawful and constitutional.”
At the wake of the crisis and the attendant defection of the 27 lawmakers, Chairman, Rivers State chapter of the Labour Party, Hilda Dokubo has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to declare the 27 seats of the defected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly vacant and go ahead to conduct a fresh election.
The Labour Party had in a statement signed by its state chapter’s chairman, said, “It has come to the attention of the leadership of the Labour Party of the development in the Rivers State House of Assembly where about 27 members of the Assembly were said to have defected from one party to another in disregard to the constitutional provisions.
“Section 109 (1) (g) of the Nigeria constitution clearly states that ‘A member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected.
“The above provision of the constitution is very clear about the fate that must befall on those legislators who betrayed the party that sponsored them. Therefore Labour is calling on the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly to declare vacant the 27 seats of the defected members without delay in line with the laws of the land.
“The party is also calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission to begin the process of conducting a fresh election to fill the vacant spaces.”
The Labour Party recalled that in 2022, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sacked 16 Ebonyi House of Assembly members for defection. The court held that the movement was in breach of Section 109(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution as amended which provides that defector legislators are not allowed to retain their seats in the legislature.
“The same fate befell on 18 members of the Cross River House of Assembly and 2 members of the House of Representatives who were asked to vacate their seats for defecting from their party last year.
“The Labour Party can also vividly recall that in 2012, our member representing Akure North/Akure South Federal Constituency defected to another party. This case lingered until the Supreme Court in 2022 ordered him to immediately vacate his seat following his defection from the Labour Party.
“The Court’s unanimous judgement held that the lawmaker who decamped from the Labour Party to another party was constitutionally unfit to retain his seat as a federal lawmaker in the federal House of Representatives.
“Though, the case aforementioned was slow in coming but the fact that the apex Court did justice to the matter with a proper interpretation of the law is enough for the political class to be aware that it can no longer take both the electorates and party that sponsored them for elections for a ride.”
The Labour Party said they are directly involved in this matter because they know the manipulations and electoral frauds that threw up some of these out-going lawmakers in Rivers State, which unfortunately deprived popular candidates of Labour Party victory in the last election.
The party believes that with fresh elections in Rivers state, the people will have the opportunity to elect their true representatives.
Besides the calls from both the national and the state secretariats of the Labour Party, its governorship candidate in Rivers State in the March 18 election Beatrice Itubo, is presently in talks with Governor Fubara.
She said, “I met with the Governor and discussion is still in progress.”
She, however, did not give details if she was dumping the LP for the PDP or just in talks to support the Fubara-led administration from her party.
Itubo disclosed that she would only give details when they conclude their deliberations.
Already, information on the ongoing meeting between the governor and the avowed enemies of Wike in the state is everywhere.
Impeccable sources disclosed that the political heavyweights in the state across party lines who were humiliated by Wike have joined forces with the governor to ensure he emerged victorious at the end of the battle.
Human Rights activist and environmentalist, Ann-kio Briggs has put all the blame of the crisis on the immediate past governor who she said is overbearing.
Briggs warned the Tinubu-led administration to act swiftly by calling Wike to order, saying that the crisis in Rivers State if not arrested now and fast too would snowball to a major crisis that would engulf the entire nation and his presidency.
“Impeccable sources disclosed that the political heavyweights in the state across party lines who were humiliated by Wike have joined forces with the governor to ensure he emerged victorious at the end of the battle”
She said the Ijaw nation had endured inhuman treatment from both Rivers State and Federal Governments and when by providence the people want to feel assimilated, those who do not want peace in the country came up with the mess going on now in Rivers State.
Briggs predicated her warning on the importance of Rivers State to the economy of Nigeria and the nature of indigenes of the state that she observed were not pushovers.
Speaking on the crisis caused by a yet-to-be disclosed disagreement between Wike, and Fubara, the activist, who was a guest on a television programme, called on Tinubu to intervene to restore peace to the oil rich state and backbone of Nigeria’s economy.
“I know my state, I know my region, I know my people, I know how my people react, they are not people you push around.
“I have cautioned the president, it doesn’t matter who he favours but should ensure that there is peace in Rivers State. The president must be seen to be intervening,” she added.
While observing that the crisis in Rivers State was not a political issue, she stressed that, “It is a crisis that could engulf the country and even the president,” because Rivers State is very critical and vital to the economy of the country.
Briggs also warned the presidency against the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State because the crisis was being orchestrated from the FCT by the former governor.
According to her, the people of Rivers State should not be allowed to continue to suffer the high-handedness of Wike, whom she claimed had the ears of the president.
While describing Fubara as a very shy, gentle individual, who has been loyal to Wike over the years, the activist further warned that Fubara was never a weak person and as any normal human being, was bound to react when pushed to the wall.
She, therefore, urged the president to call Wike to order, adding that the people of Rivers could not condone a situation, where Wike would be supervising the governor from Abuja or having a third term through the back door.
Elder statesman, Ambrose Ezewunwa, said what is happening in Rivers State is a dangerous development that must be cut short without further delay.
Ezewunwa said the crisis bedeviling the state will have consequences on humanity and infrastructure and advised the warring parties to sheathe their swords and allow peace to reign.
