Rivers Crisis: Resign Or Face Impeachment, Okocha Tells Fubara
Barikui Felix, Port Harcourt
As the face-off between the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara and the State House of Assembly continues to assume different dimensions, Chairman of the All Progress(APC) in the state, Chief Tony Okocha, has called on the governor to resign or be impeached by the lawmakers.
Okocha, who stated this against the backdrop of the governor’s invitation to the Assembly through the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Tammy Danagogo, said the timing of the invitation was belated and not within the ambits of the law.
Recall that the Supreme Court recently recognised the Martin Amaewhule-led Rivers State House of Assembly as the rightful assembly of the state.
The judgment also voided the presentation of the 2025 budget before a three-man assembly led by Victor Oko-Jumbo and removed all elected local government chairmen.
Following the judgement, the Assembly invited the governor to present the budget to it and summoned the Chairman and Commissioners of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission ( RSIEC) to appear before it.
However, the governor, in an attempt to resolve the impasse, had fixed a meeting with the lawmakers at 10:am Monday. However, Okocha, reacting to the invitation and the Supreme Court judgement at a press conference in Port Harcourt, urged the lawmakers to ignore the invitation, describing the reasons given for the invitation as absurd.
He insisted that the Supreme Court judgement is sacrosanct and cannot be discussed.
“Supreme Court judgement is sacrosanct as it is. There is nothing anybody can do, you can’t add or remove.
“As a political party, we are advising the governor that there are two options available to him – resign honorably or be impeached, that’s the position of the APC today,” Okocha said.
Okocha also insisted that the governor has committed several impeachable offences as outlined in the Supreme Court judgement.
“He has run the state aground. He has disrespected Mr President, and we warned him to resign because there is no government in Rivers State. He’s already sitting on a keg of gunpowder, and a little spark will make it explode, ” he added.
On the invitation by the governor, the party chief stated: “If I were an assembly member, my answer to that Greek gift from the governor is that it is not within the armbits of the law, secondly, it’s already belated”.
He recalled that the APC had earlier offered some helping hands to the governor in the wake of the crisis but he refused, noting that those who urged the governor on have left him now.
Okocha applauded the 27 lawmakers led by Martin Amaewhule for standing firm in their pursuit of the matter.
“I congratulate the 27 assembly members who stood their grounds. Not even the threat, not even the palpable hunger following their non-payment of salaries, they were not deterred so we need to commend them as the face of modern democracy in Nigeria,” the party chairman said.
Okocha also reprimanded those threatening to burst oil pipelines in the region if Fubara is impeached, describing their threat as an act cowardice.
