• Group blames judiciary, police for festering crisis
• Rivers APC welcomes pro-Wike lawmakers, expects more defectors
• Call Wike to order, Ijaw congress tells Tinubu
• Rivers Exco approves 2024 budget estimate of N800b
  
The month-long rift between the Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, yesterday took a new twist as 27 lawmakers loyal to Wike of the 32-member House of Assembly and led by Martins Amaehwule, dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
 
The lawmakers cited division within the PDP as the primary reason for their defection to APC. They sat under tight security at the entrance of the Assembly complex along Moscow Road in Port Harcourt around 8am where the decision was taken.
 
Rattled by the new development, a first in the state ruled by the PDP since 1999, Fubara was locked for much part of yesterday in an emergency meeting with members of the state executive council at the Government House in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
 
The meeting presided over by the governor is the fifth executive council meeting. The last exco meeting was held on October 27, where the council approved four draft bills.
 
Despite the political crisis rocking the state amid worries by citizens on how the government will pull through the 2024 appropriation bill following the challenge of factional speakers, the executive council deliberated and approved an estimated budget of N800 billion for next year.
 
There was, however, no indication if any of the factional lawmakers played a role in the appropriation bill christened ‘Budget of renewed hope, consolidation and continuity,’ with N412 billion projected for capital expenditure and recurrent expenditure for N361 billion.
 
In its reaction, the APC in Rivers said it is open to receive more defectors from PDP in the state, describing the defection of the 27 lawmakers as a welcome development.
 
Spokesperson for the State APC Caretaker Committee, Chibuike Ikenga, said with the number of lawmakers now in the party and others to follow, the state can be effectively governed.
 
Ikenga stated: “In an earlier interview, I did mention that our doors are open to welcoming anybody who is willing to be part of us. We are happy about this (lawmakers defection), and we expect that others will join so that we can swell the ranks of the APC and run the state properly. The defection of the lawmakers is a welcome development.”

MEANWHILE, PDP national leadership has written to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) demanding fresh elections to replace the 27 Rivers lawmakers. This was made known in a press statement signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba.
 
According to Ologunagba, the seats of the defected lawmakers have become vacant owing to the fact that they contested elections on the platform of the party in their respective constituencies.
 
Citing the party’s constitution, he said: “The seats of the respective 27 former lawmakers have become vacant by virtue of the provision of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
 
“For the avoidance of doubt, Section 109 (1) of the 1999 Constitution provides that ‘a member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected.
 
“By reason of the above Constitutional provision and its clear interpretation by the Supreme Court, the 27 defected members have vacated and lost their seats, rights, privileges, recognition and obligations accruable to members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.”
 
Also, the Labour Party (LP) has urged the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly to declare vacant the seats of the 27 members who dumped the party that sponsored their election.
 
A statement by Rivers LP chairman, Hilda Dokubo, said: “We recall that in 2022, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sacked 16 Ebonyi House of Assembly members for defection. The court held that the movement was in breach of Section 109(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, which provides that defecting legislators are not allowed to retain their seats in the legislature.
 
“The same fate befell 18 members of the Cross River House of Assembly and two members of the House of Representatives who were asked to vacate their seats for defecting from their party last year.
 
“LP can vividly recall that in 2012, our member representing Akure North/Akure South Federal Constituency defected to another party. This case lingered until the Supreme Court in 2022 ordered him to immediately vacate his seat following his defection. The court’s unanimous judgment held that the lawmaker who decamped from LP to another party was constitutionally unfit to retain his seat.
 
“Though, the case aforementioned was slow in coming but the fact that the apex court did justice to the matter with a proper interpretation of the law is enough for the political class to be aware that it can no longer take both the electorate and party that sponsored them for elections for a ride.”
 
The statement explained further that LP is directly involved in this matter because it is aware of the manipulations and electoral fraud that threw up some of the lawmakers in Rivers, which unfortunately deprived popular LP candidates victory in the last election. “We believe that with fresh elections in Rivers, the people will have the opportunity to elect their true representatives.”
 
The Ijaw National Congress (INC) has called on President Bola Tinubu to prevail on Wike and his loyalists to stop their moves aimed at sacking the Rivers governor, Fubara. This is as INC condemned what it labeled as open support by security agencies for the Amaewhule-led faction of the lawmakers loyal to Wike, whom they gave protection to hold a sitting against a subsisting court order requiring all parties to maintain the status quo and to take no official actions until further notice.
 
INC, in a statement signed by its president, Prof Benjamin Okaba, on Monday, said it was curious that despite previous interventions of Tinubu and other critical stakeholders, Wike was bent on ensuring the impeachment of Fubara.
 
“Mr President, we implore you once again to call Mr Wike and those Federal Government agencies and agents who are putting Rivers at risk of anarchy, to order. Such elements are inimical to the stability of Nigeria sooner or later,” Okaba said.
 
Recall that the state has been in political turmoil since October 29 and 30 this year when the lawmakers loyal to Wike served an impeachment notice on the governor and removed Edison Ehie, who strongly supports the governor as the House leader.
 
Later, Ehie and three others formed a faction and in a brief sitting held at Government House, Ehie was announced as the speaker, and all the parties later took the matter to court.
 
However, the court, through different judges, has been issuing conflicting orders on the matter. There was an interim injunction granted on October 30, by the Federal High Court in Abuja, which retrained the National Assembly from taking over the legislative functions of the Rivers State House of Assembly and empowering a faction of the house led by Amaewule to start sitting to perform their legislative functions, pending the determination of a motion on notice filed by the same faction.
 
But on November 9, another Federal High Court in Port Harcourt made an order stopping the two factions from sitting pending the determination of a motion on notice also pending before the same court.
 
While the order of the court restraining both factions from performing their legislative functions is pending, the Amaewhule faction moved further and secured another order from the same Federal High Court empowering his faction to start sitting for legislative business which brought about the development yesterday.
 
Reacting on the development, a group known as the Ogoni Development Drive (ODD) said the move by the factional lawmakers led by Amaewhule to access the assembly complex despite court orders restraining the parties involved in the crisis from accessing the complex was a total neglect to the rule of law.
   
The group, led by its president, Solomon Lenu, blamed the judiciary for the crisis in the state, saying its conflicting orders were responsible for the avoidable chaos in Rivers.
 
The group also blamed the police for the compromise, questioning why the assembly complex was opened to a faction when there is a court order restraining both factions from accessing the complex.
 
The group urged the new Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu, not to allow himself to be dragged into the mud like what happened to former Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mbu, who was disgraced following his alleged biased actions in the state.