By Ishaya Ibrahim
Governor of Rivers State, Siminalaye Fubara, has made some recent moves aimed at weakening the political grip of his predecessor, Nyesom Wike on the state. And he appears to be succeeding.
Firstly, four lawmakers of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to him, part ways with the 32-member assembly by electing their own Speaker, Oko Jumbo.
Next, Oko Jumbo secured a court order that recognized him and three others as the legitimate members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. The seats of the others were declared.
Recall that one member of the Assembly, Edison Ehie, resigned to become the Chief of Staff to Fubara. The duo appears to be the architect of this recent moves.
Fubara’s next move was to issue an executive order which relocated the Rivers State House of Assembly to the Government House where he has control over the security arrangement.
In another deft move to deflate the hold of Wike on the local government structures of Rivers State, Fubara directed the heads of personnel of all the 23 local government areas of Rivers state to give him the comprehensive list and details of all the workers in their various local government areas, according to @PIDOMNIGERIA, an X handle who regularly post pro-Fubara side of the battle.
He said the list of local government workers requested by Fubara was aimed at removing all the political workers loyal to Wike from the payroll.
Hear him: “Fubara wants to begin the payment of their salaries directly from the State to their various bank accounts. Sim is set to render the current local government chairmen that are loyal to Wike useless. As one Kobo will not be given to them either for project, or payment of salaries. The state government will pay workers directly at the end of every month. Power jam Power. They will know that Sim is the executive governor of Rivers state, and not Wike.”