Tinubu brokers truce as Fubara, Wike sign peace agreement

• Court stops INEC from conducting election to replace 27 defected lawmakers
• Fashola: Tinubu has no constitutional role in Ondo, Rivers’ crises
• Ogoni people threaten to occupy Abuja
• Call Wike to order, Rivers’ elders tell Tinubu

President Bola Tinubu, yesterday, held a meeting with Governor Siminalayi Fubara, a former governor of the state, Peter Odili, and other stakeholders at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, over the political crisis in Rivers State.

The meeting was the second intervention since the impasse between Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, started about two months ago.
The meeting between Tinubu and Rivers stakeholders was not unconnected to the untoward developments in the state where 27 out of 32 members of the state House of Assembly, who are loyalists of the FCT Minister defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Also at the closed-door meeting, which was underway as at press time, was the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, and the Rivers State deputy governor, Ngozi Odu. Others were Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser; PDP acting chairman in the state, Aaron Chukwuemeka; embattled Speaker of the House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule; and chairman of the APC in the state.

Odili is regarded as the political godfather of many of the present dramatis personae in Rivers, including Wike.

At the end of the meeting, warring factions signed a peace agreement at the Presidential Villa. An eight-point communiqué issued at the end of the meeting listed certain conditions that include: “All court matters instituted by the governor in respect of the crisis will be immediately withdrawn; all impeachment proceedings initiated against Fubara to be dropped immediately; the leadership of the Assembly as recognized by Martin Amaewhule shall be recognized alongside the 27 members who defected; the governor will re-present the 2024 budget to a properly constituted Assembly; and all Commissioners in the cabinet who resigned their appointment should be resubmitted to the House for approval.”

Recall that following the defection, the court-recognised Speaker of the House of Assembly, Edison Ehie, had declared their seats vacant and wrote to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct fresh elections in their constituencies.

However, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has stopped INEC from conducting by-elections for the 27 defected lawmakers.

In a suit marked FHC/AB3/CS/1681/23, in which the lawmakers are the plaintiffs while INEC, PDP, Clerk Rivers State House of Assembly; Inspector General of Police and the Department of State Services are first to fifth respondents, the lawmakers had sought an order restraining the INEC and PDP from declaring vacant or taking any step to declare their seats vacant.

They also asked the court to stop INEC from conducting fresh elections to fill their seats pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

In the judgment, Justice Donatus Okorowo also issued an interim order stopping the first respondent from conducting a fresh election pending the determination of the case.

A former Minister of Work and Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, has said President Tinubu’s intervention was not required in the ongoing political tensions in Ondo and Rivers states, as the Constitution doesn’t give room for such.

“Does the Constitution assign a role to the President in this matter?” Fashola asked while speaking at the Nigerian Air Force Officers Mess Honourary Members Forum 2023 Annual Lecture held in Lagos at the weekend.

Despite calls for the president to get involved, Fashola said the Constitution clearly outlines the proper procedures and roles of officials in such situations.

“Are those inviting the President to act in Ondo and Rivers not aware that the President has no constitutional role in these matters?” he asked.

Fashola went on to praise the “blue blood Ondo indigenes,” who pushed for law and constitutionality in their state’s recent crisis before the governor’s letter restored calm.

“Happily, in Ondo case, some blue-blood Ondo indigenes have stood up to be counted. But they are in an obvious minority,” he stated.

The former minister said going forward, the “leadership in Rivers State similarly needs to do the needful rather than pass responsibility.

“Also, as citizens, we must amend ourselves and take accountability rather than improperly demanding presidential action. We have amended the Constitution, so what is left to amend, except ourselves?” he concluded.

Earlier, the crisis between Fubara and his estranged political godfather, Wike, assumed a new dimension when Ogoni people threatened to occupy the streets of Abuja.

Speaking under the aegis of Ogoni Development Drive (ODD), they asked President Tinubu to call his FCT Minister to order, failing which they would make the nation’s capital ungovernable.

In a statement on Monday by the convener of ODD, Solomon Lenu, it said it had uncovered plans by Wike and the expelled state Assembly members to continuously raise political tension against the governor and people of the state. He lamented that the development is already scaring away investors from the state.

“Rivers State cannot be reduced to a theatre of political war, while the Minister thrives in Abuja. We therefore call on the Presidency to rein in Wike, so that we can have a peaceful atmosphere for governance in Rivers as it is in other states,” he said.

Also, Rivers State Elders and Leaders Forum led by former governor of the state, Rufus Ada George, has urged President Tinubu to consolidate on his earlier intervention in the feud between Wike and Fubara, saying the consequences of inaction may not only affect Rivers but the Niger Delta region and the Federal Government.

The elders, in a communiqué endorsed by 14 of them, yesterday, regretted that neither Fubara nor Wike responded to their letters seeking for audience with each of them.

They condemned what they described as the misuse of Rivers people’s political power vested in politicians by the people for personal gains and interest, as well as the recent defection of 27 lawmakers without recourse to their constituents.

“The Forum is aware of and thus rejects the news making the rounds of forum shopping and purchase of legal instruments outside Rivers to cause a crisis in the state.

“An alleged already written/premeditated court ruling by one Justice Okorowo of Federal High Court 8 Abuja on an ex parte application secretly filled in the night by pro-Wike lawmakers is disturbing and generating serious tension in Rivers, thus giving the Forum great concern.

“We therefore urge the judiciary and all security agencies to be wary and alive in discharging their responsibilities in order not to worsen the already tense atmosphere in Rivers.

Another group under the aegis of Ida Obolo Sim Vanguard, said the actions and activities of the former governor indicated that he completely ignored the President’s earlier advice to give peace a chance, regretting that he (Wike) has continued to fan embers of political unrest in the state, which according to them, contravenes the renewed hope of the President.

“We implore Mr. President to act fast in the interest of his administration in particular, and the Nigeria economy in general. Wike should allow the duly elected governor to concentrate on delivering the dividends of democracy to Rivers people,” leader of the group, Kingsley Sylvanus, said.