By Ishaya Ibrahim
Members of the Nigeria Labour Congress, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), traders and others on Friday marched the streets of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital in solidarity with the governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
On Tuesday, Fubara appended his signature to an eight-point resolution brokered by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu which however made his position as governor shaky. The resolution however strengthened the power of Fubara’s ex-godfather now political foe, Nyesom Wike.
Wike, who is the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, controls 25 lawmakers in the Rivers State House of Assembly, all hostile to Fubara.
Meanwhile, a court in Port Harcourt ruled that the minority faction loyal to Fubara was the properly constituted House.
A day after the court’s ruling, Fubara submitted the state’s budget to the faction, which they expeditiously passed and signed into law.
But in the truce brokered by Tinubu, Wike’s men were returned back to the leadership position of the Rivers State House of Assembly. Fubara was then mandated to re-present the budget to the lawmakers.
The governor was also asked to readmit resigned loyalists of Wike back to his cabinet. The loyalists had resigned from the government of Fubara in solidarity with Wike.
But in a carnival-like procession on Friday, with a live band on a stage at the government house gate, the supporters chanted pro-Fubara song while denouncing the Aso Rock resolution that was imposed on Fubara.