The Rivers State House of Assembly has rejected three recent appointments made by Governor Siminalayi Fubara, describing them as illegal and unconstitutional.
Speaker of the Assembly Martin Amaewhule rejected the appointments in a letter to Fubara on Monday.
The letter targets three specific appointments: Goodlife Ben as acting chairperson of the Local Government Service Commission, Ine Briggs as acting director-general of the Bureau for Public Procurement, and Tonte Davies as acting administrator of a non-existent New Cities Development Authority (NCDA).
The Assembly argues that Ben’s appointment violates Section 44(3) of the Rivers State Local Government Law, which mandates the Governor’s confirmation by the resolution of the House of Assembly for such a position.
“This law does not grant the Governor any power to appoint anyone, however, as Chairman or Member of the Commission, even in an acting capacity,” Amaewhule said.
Briggs’ appointment was also deemed unlawful due to the absence of a legally constituted board, a prerequisite for recommending the Director-General, which violated Section 5(1) of the Rivers State Public Procurement Law No. 4 of 2008.
“There shall be for the Bureau a Director-General who shall be appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Board after competitive selections,” Amaewhule said.
Amaewhule said that “the Board is yet to be reconstituted in line with Section 4(a), which states that the “Chairman and Members shall be appointed by the Governor for a term of four years subject to the confirmation of the Rivers State House of Assembly.”
He added that there could not have been a recommendation when there is no Board to warrant the invocation of the powers of the Governor in Section 5(1) of the law.
For Tonte Davies, the speaker said that Davies’s appointment “is not backed by any legislation and the Governor cannot, on his own or by executive fiat, create this authority without legislation from the Rivers State House of Assembly.”
The speaker urged the governor “to withdraw these appointments without further delay.”
This latest development comes amidst ongoing tensions between the pro-Wike Assembly and Fubara.
Fubara assumed the position following the conclusion of Nyesom Wike’s term, and Wike is currently serving as a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria
The two factions have clashed over control of governance and political influence in the state.
Last week, the house stripped Fubara of the power to appoint caretaker committees for local government councils in the state after rejecting the governor’s veto against the legislation.
The legislators rejected Fubara’s veto and subsequently enacted the bill into law, thereby restricting the governor from wielding the authority previously held by his predecessor, Wike.
With these bills now becoming laws, the governor is obligated to organise an election at the conclusion of the current officials’ tenure.
The current council officials, who were elected in 2021, are set to conclude their three-year term within the first quarter of this year.
The three-year tenure of the current council officials in the state who were elected in 2021 will expire within the first quarter of this year.
