Factional Rivers Speaker reveals Tinubu lured them with appointments
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Martin Amaewhule, factional Speaker of the Rivers House of Assembly, has revealed the hand of Bola Tinubu in the political knock-down and drag-out in the state which pits Governor Siminalayi Fubara against his predecessor Nyesom Wike.
Amaewhule said the President lured them with federal appointments when they met with him in the Villa in Abuja.
Wike, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when he was Governor helped the President to “snatch, grab, and run” with Rivers in the presidential vote earlier this year, and Tinubu, who belongs to the All Progressives Congress (APC) compensated him with the job of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister.
Wike is now leveraging his federal connections to disrupt Rivers both to maintain his “political structure” there and to ensure Rivers in is in the pocket of Tinubu, whom the PDP has accused of scheming to impose a one-party state on Nigeria.
Fubara is a member of the PDP, from which 27 members of the Assembly defected to the APC last week.
The Amaewhule faction comprising 27 lawmakers has rejected the 2024 Appropriation Bill presented by Fubara, which he has since signed into law after his loyalists in the Assembly, led by factional Speaker Edison Ehie, passed it.
The Amaewhule faction is loyal to Tinubu through Wike.
The Ehie faction comprises four lawmakers loyal to Fubara.
Amaewhule confirmed at the weekend his faction defected from the PDP to the APC because Tinubu fulfilled the promise he made to the state PDP leaders when they met with him in Abuja.
He made the disclosure at the state APC dedication service and stakeholders’ meeting in Port Harcourt.
“You know some time ago, leaders of the PDP from the state visited Mr President in Abuja. We begged Mr President. The former President could not attend to the problems of the state,” Amaewhule said.
“So our leaders begged Mr. President, we have a problem, look at the East-West Road leading to Ogoni land.
“This is a President that is not in our party. Unlike the previous President, he [Tinubu] gave us his words and said “Go back home irrespective of your party, I am a detribalised Nigerian.’
“The President told us he will do the East-West Road. Today work is ongoing and in no distance time, that project will be completed.
“Access to the refinery and all the companies along the stretch of the road will be complete. This is the President that says a thing and he does it.
“Do you know what the President is doing since he became President? He has given appointments to Rivers people irrespective of parties? Mr President, for the first time, gave a strategic appointment to somebody that is not from his party as FCT Minister.
“He also appointed Boma Iyaye, Executive Director Finance and Administration of NDDC [Niger Delta Development Commission] and many other appointments he had given to Rivers sons, including the presidential spokesman.
“All the people he appointed are not APC members. The President shows that he is detribalised.”
“So we have taken a position to be in the APC to work with Mr President. Mr President has appointed many people from Rivers State. All we need to do is support and pray for them so that good things can come to Rivers State.”
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Amaewhule knocks Fubara for blocking Assembly funds
Amaewhule said as lawmakers, their job is to come up with legislations that will help the state, saying they are already doing that, but he took a swipe at Fubara for withholding funds meant for the running of the Assembly, per The PUNCH.
“You are aware that we just passed the Rivers State funds management bill, 2023. That bill is talking about financial autonomy of state legislators.
“What it means is that as soon as assent is given to that bill, we don’t need to run to the Governor begging for funds to manage the House of Assembly.
“What the Governor is doing by not releasing funds to the state Assembly is against the Constitution. As we speak, the Governor has gone to demolish the House of Assembly complex. An edifice built with tax payers’ money.
“He personally supervised it, not minding that our property, everything belonging to members and staff inside, and they are looting them. Documents, our archives.”
Amaewhule insisted the 2024 Appropriation Bill Fubara signed into law is null and void.
“We hear that some four people gathered committee of friends and met somewhere. I don’t know what they are doing. Rivers people know it today that the House of Assembly of any state is defined by the Constitution.
“The only way you can convene the House, you need to have quorum. Quorum is 11 [members]. If you are not up to 11, anything you are doing is family meeting or beer parlour meeting.
“Anything you hear they have done (budget) ignore them, It is null and void. The law is clear. Anything you are doing, you must in line with the dictates of the Constitution and the standing orders of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
“So anytime we meet, it is Rivers State House of Assembly. Anytime they meet, it is beer parlour meeting. If they like, they should carry all the funds of the state and give to them, they do not have that name, House of Assembly. So don’t bother yourself, the House of Assembly is intact.
“We have gathered information that they are planning to attack us. They want to go to the quarters to attack us. You are aware they came to attack my residence.
“We hear they are planning another one to attack us again. So watch and see. But there is no form of attack that can deter us.”
INEC told Ehie faction can’t declare seats vacant
Enemi George, a member of the Amaewhule faction, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disregard the letter written to it by the Ehie faction declaring their seats vacant, according to The PUNCH.
“Can a Speaker declare a seat vacant? Is he a Speaker in the first place? Can four people elect a Speaker out of 31?” he wondered.
“There is nothing like factional Speaker. We have just one Speaker in the Rivers State House of Assembly in the person of Martin Amaewhule. You can’t build something on nothing. Can three people elect a Speaker out of 31 people?
“We are a 32-member Assembly. One died so we are 31 now. 27 now suspended four. So the four people that are in suspension will now say they held a sitting. You can’t hold any sitting out of 31, even without suspension.
“You have to form a quorum to convene the House which is 11 people. Then you need two-thirds majority which is 22 to elect a Speaker. So who elected you Speaker? So you can’t build something on nothing.
“No other Speaker was elected. Martin Amaewhule was elected on the 5th of June, 2023 and has been a Speaker of the House till this day. Everything they are doing is outside the fact.
“Does the person have the requisite competence to write to INEC? Does the law enable the person to write to INEC?
“If your father is signing affidavit for you for age declaration and then a stranger from nowhere goes to sign that you are 30-years-old, does it make any sense? The person does not know you, does not know when you were born, has no right at all.
“He has no right at all to even write that letter. The person should go to prison for impersonation. That is the level we are going to now.
“You were never elected a Speaker. There is only one Speaker in the Assembly, constitutionally, morally and however you want to look at it. So the question of Speakership is not even in contention.
“They are just fooling themselves. It will expire. The reason is that we have your mandate to sit in the House and make laws for the good governance of Rivers State and carry out our oversight functions.”
