Governor Similanayi Fubara of Rivers State has been accused of plotting to procure interim orders from judges to stop the implementation of laws which he was vetoed over by the State House of Assembly.
At an unscheduled sitting last month, the assembly had ruled against Fubara to enact the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA) Service Commission Law.
The lawmakers had said they observed that more than the constitutionally required 30 days had elapsed since they sent the notice of the amendment to the Rivers State House of Assembly Service Commission law to the governor for his assent.
At a press conference in Port Harcourt on Thursday, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of APC in Rivers, Chief Tony Okocha, alleged that the governor is planning to engage some judges to obtain the interim order so as to declare illegal the Rivers State House of Assembly as constituted and as led by Hon. Martin Amaehwule.
Okocha alleged that the governor wants to leverage on the interim order in order to appoint a caretaker committee of chairmen of the local government areas in the State.
“I want to use this opportunity to inform Rivers people and Nigerians of the move by the Governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, to procure interim orders from Judges that I may not name here, but I will put in my petition today to the National Judicial Council.”
“He wants to procure interim order stopping the implementation of the laws which he was vetoed. He wants to procure an order to declare illegal the Rivers State House of Assembly as constituted and as led by Rt. Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule. The Governor is in the business as we speak and I speak with all authority because the walls have ears.
“These are the plans that are on and he is doing that so that he will now leverage on that order to go ahead and appoint caretaker committees in local government against the warning of the man he says he respects, the President.
“But let me put it clearly here that we will stoutly, vehemently oppose such negative subterranean moves by a man who ought to protect the dignity and integrity of a state called Rivers. Rivers State cannot be turned to a pariah because of cluelessness of one person. Rivers State is a state to be reckoned with in the comity of nations, highly respected and regarded.”
“But see how dangerously we have fallen because we have a Governor who does not understand his left from his right. So we are to put out this clearly to Nigerians and to Rivers people that we will stoutly disobey that. According to Frantz Fanon, the gift to an intransigence government is civil disobedience.
“If the Government of Siminalayi Fubara tends towards intransigence, then he will meet with civil disobedience. It is just natural,” he stated.
Reacting to the allegation, the Rivers State Commissioner for Information, Joe Johnson, said the governor does not do backyard business and cannot make such a plot.
He said, “There is nothing like that; we are not given to backyard business. My governor does not do anything that is illegal and he is not interested in any illegality. Whatever will come from the courts will not come from the back door. We are not like them and the governor has said that he will surprise them so he will surprise them.”
