- PDP, Clark reject peace terms
Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara yesterday said he was prepared to pay any price for peace to reign.
The governor, who has been embroiled in a political battle with his predecessor Nyesom Wike, on Monday signed an eight-point agreement to facilitate a truce.
Fubara, Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Wike, former Governor Peter Odili, Speaker Martins Amaewhule, chairmen of the state chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chukwuemeka and the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker Committee Chairman Tony Okocha, National Security Adviser (NSA) Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Chairman PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) Senator Adolphus Wabara, among others attended a peace meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at Aso Villa.
Speaking yesterday in Port Harcourt, Fubara said: “There is no price that will be too big to pay to ensure that peace prevails.”
The statement was greeted with a thunderous applause.
He spoke during the 3rd Convocation and 6th Founders Day ceremonies of the PAMO University of Medical Sciences in Iriebe, Obio-Akpor Local Government Area. The university is owned by Dr. Odili.
Fubara assured that the provision of a quality education system and affordable public healthcare services remained two vital priorities of his administration.
“While some progress has been made, it is obvious that a lot still needs to be done to achieve our collective aspirations for universal access to quality education and healthcare for our people.
“I need not say that no society can progress without educated and healthy people.”
He added: “I assure you that we have no choice as a government, but to continue to offer tangible material support to enable the university to widen the scope and quality of medical education and services it provides in our state.”
Odili hailed Fubara for his developmental strides, saying his first steps were correct.
He said: “There is no doubt that you will dance well.”
Odili, however, told Fubara, who is the Special Visitor to the institution, that governance is not an easy business, assuring that the institution will continue to pray for him to succeed.
The agreement reached at the meeting and signed by Fubara, Wike, the Speaker, other lawmakers and dignitaries present at the parley are:
•All matters in courts by Fubara and his team shall be withdrawn immediately;
•All impeachment proceedings should be dropped immediately;
•The House as led by Martin Amaewhule shall be recognised alongside the 27 members who resigned from the PDP;
•The remunerations and benefits of all members must be reinstated immediately and the governor shall henceforth not interfere with the full funding of the Assembly;
•The Assembly shall choose where they want to sit and conduct their legislative business without interference;
•Fubara shall re-present the state budget to a properly constituted House;
•The names of all commissioners who resigned should be resubmitted to the House for approval;
•There should not be a caretaker committee for the LGAs.
However, Delta State-born Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark and PDP Acting National Chairman Ambassador Umar Damagum rejected the peace terms.
While Clark said the resolutions were undemocratic and dictatorial, Damagum said the seats of the 27 members of the House of Assembly who have defected from the PDP to the APC remain vacant.
Clark: I reject resolutions
Clark rejected the peace terms, saying that they were unacceptable to the Ijaw ethnic nationality of which Fubara is a member.
The Ijaw leader, who spoke with reporters in Abuja, said the eight-point resolution is undemocratic, dictatorial, one-sided and aimed at handing over the political leadership of Rivers to Wike.
He alleged that President Tinubu used his role as a mediator to show gratitude to the FCT minister for “delivering” Rivers to him during the last presidential election.
Clark, who had earlier commended the president for intervening in the Rivers issue, threatened to take legal action against the resolutions.
He said: “I Senator Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, as leader of the Ijaw nation, and as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), decided to hold this emergency Press Conference with the full authority of my people.
“We are prepared to face any consequences that may result in the political crisis in Rivers State.
“We will resist any attempt, subtle, subterranean, covert, overt, to make an elected Ijaw son, Siminialayi Fubara, the Governor of Rivers State, a servant, a stooge to Nyesom Wike, who had boasted that any attempt by the governor to touch his so-called ‘Wike’s structure’, with the connivance and support of President Bola Tinubu, will be resisted by us.
“We will go to go court to resist this oppressive action, using all available constitutional and legal means.
“It is on this note I wish to appeal to the youths who are aggrieved, to remain calm, as we will use legal means to dethrone this hydra-headed monster, called oppression.”
27 lawmakers should go, says PDP
PDP Chairman Damagum objected to the resolutions, insisting that the 27 lawmakers who had defected to APC should lose their seats.
He said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should conduct elections to fill the seats.
Hinging his argument on Section 109 (1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), Damagun said the lawmakers had vacated and lost their seats by reason of defection from the PDP, the platform upon which they were elected into the House of Assembly.
He added: “Our party insists that having now vacated and lost their seats, the only option available for the former lawmakers, if they wish to return to the House of Assembly, is to seek fresh nomination and re-election on the platform of any political party of their choice in line with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and the Electoral Act, 2022.
“The 25 former Rivers lawmakers freely and without any cause vacated their seats, being fully aware of the consequences of defection from the Party upon which they were elected into the Rivers State House of Assembly without the conditions stipulated by the 1999 Constitution.
“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no division in the PDP at the national or any other level for that matter to justify the defection of the 25 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from the Party.
“They, therefore, vacated their seats for reasons best known to them and cannot return to the House of Assembly without passing through a fresh electoral process in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act, 2022.”
He added: “The Rivers State House of Assembly, having become Functus Officio on the matter, cannot re-admit the former lawmakers unless through the channel of a fresh election.
“Our party, therefore, counsels the former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly not to be deceived by anybody giving them the false hope and impracticable assurances in Abuja that they can return to the Rivers State House of Assembly without a fresh election or that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can be stopped from conducting fresh election into the 25 Rivers State constituencies where vacancies have occurred by reason of their defection.
“For emphasis, Section 84 (15) of the Electoral Act 2022 is clear in providing that no courts have powers to stop INEC from conducting elections wherever and whenever a vacancy occurs in any electoral constituency.
“For clarity, Section 84 (15) of the Electoral Act, 2022 provides that ‘Nothing in this section shall empower the Courts to stop the holding of primaries or general election under this Act pending the determination of the suit.’
“The PDP demands that INEC should, in line with Section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Section 84 (15) of the Electoral Act, 2022, fix a date for the conduct of fresh election into the 25 State Constituencies in Rivers State where vacancies have occurred by reason of the defection of the now former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, pending the determination of any suit in any court.”
Damagun also said PDP would take disciplinary action against Wike and other chieftains who worked against the party at the appropriate time.
Falana kicks
Lagos lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) said President Tinubu’s intervention in the crisis should be guided by the constitution.
Falana gave the advice in a statement in Lagos yesterday night titled, “Presidential intervention in Rivers State crisis is advisory”.
He said:” While the President may intervene in the crises rocking the states, his intervention must always be grounded in the provisions of the Constitution.
“I agree with former Governor Tunde Fashola (SAN), who has said that President Tinubu has no constitutional role in resolving the political crisis in Ondo and Rivers States.
“Therefore, the intervention of the President in both cases is purely advisory.”
Falana contended that until a by-election is conducted by INEC to fill the 27 vacant seats in the House of Assembly, “the remaining members of the House are competent to conduct legislative business except for the impeachment of the Governor which can only be carried out by the two-thirds of the entire members of the House of Assembly.”
