•Clark asks IGP to caution anti-governor lawmakers
•Says plot is invitation to chaos
Chigozie Amadi
War appears to have resumed in Port Harcourt, Rivers State as the 27 lawmakers whose seats were declared vacant following their defection to the All Progressives Congress, APC, and affirmed by the state High Court are moving to initiate impeachment proceedings against Governor Siminalayi Fubara. The 27-member pro-Wike lawmakers led by Martin Amaewhule, were directed yesterday by the Rivers State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) to commence impeachment proceedings against the Governor for what the state chapter called “clueless and directionless” governance of the state by Fubara.
Caretaker Committee Chairman of APC, Mr Tony Okocha, stated this yesterday at a press conference at his office in Port Harcourt.
But elder statesman and foremost nationalist, Chief Edwin Clark, urged the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, to immediately halt what he called an unlawful plot to impeach the governor, saying it amounts to invitation to chaos.
The impeachment directive followed Fubara’s recent declaration that members of the APC-dominated Assembly did not exist as lawmakers anymore in the eyes of the law
Okocha said no section of the constitution empowered the governor to declare the Assembly members non-existent.
He stated that the government of Fubara was clueless and, therefore, lacked criteria on how to govern the state.
Okocha stated, “Everyday we find justification in our assertions that the government of Sir Siminalayi Fubara is the worst thing that has happened in our political landscape, in our political history.
“We are justified every other second in our assertion that the government is clueless, is directionless, and it is ruthless. And that the governor is even compounding the matter. He is procuring for himself other very negative dictions and the penchant to deceive Rivers people.”
Speaking on the presidential agreement over the political crisis in the state, Okocha warned that APC would not keep watching while the governor continued to undermine President Bola Tinubu.
“To that extent, in consultation with my party, we have directed APC Assembly members to immediately commence impeachment processes of Governor Sim Fubara. Impeachment of a government that does not respect the rule of law,” he said.
But the Commissioner for information, Mr Joe Johnson, said the APC chairman did not have the locus standi to direct the lawmakers to commence an impeachment process.
Johnson said, “Tony Okocha, by definition, is an acting caretaker chairman and you know once there exists a caretaker, it means there is a substantive chairman of APC in the name of Chief Emeka Beke. That matter is before the jury and the issue of whether he has the power to direct means that the answer is no.”
Meanwhile, Clark asked the IGP to stop the lawmakers from parading themselves as duly elected lawmakers following their defection from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to APC.
Clark, who would be 97 years later this month, made the appeal in an open letter to the IGP, which he read out to journalists at a news conference in Abuja, yesterday.
The leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) said the IGP held it a duty to save Rivers State from an imminent crisis and, by extension, the country’s democracy from derision, by protecting the sanctity of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Clark said the 27 Rivers State lawmakers ceased to be members of the state legislature immediately they defected from PDP to APC.
He urged Egbetokun to ensure that the laws of the country were obeyed by the Assembly members rather than allow them to further plunge Rivers State into crisis by plotting Fubara’s impeachment.
