In the midst of escalating political tensions, Former Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike’s special adviser, Opunabo Inko-Tariah has addressed concerns over potential impeachment moves against Governor Fubara, shedding light on the intricacies of the ongoing dispute.
Inko-Tariah in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Thursday, staunchly defended the governor, citing political sentiments as reason behind the impeachment threats.
“Lots of people feel we will arrive at the resolution of the issues but certain persons are adamant for some parochial reasons to ensure that either they remove the governor on the basis of impeachment; impeachment is not removal, it simply means official indictment. It is after impeachment that you have removal or they make the state ungovernable for the governor. What has the governor done to warrant impeachment if not for political and sentimental reasons?
“First and foremost, I heard and have listened to the argument of the issue of the houses of Assembly members at my mercy. Authoritatively, I can say they are at his mercy. We had a matter in court, where the legality of the assembly members was questioned, having defected to APC and we all know that save two extenuating circumstances, one, melding of political parties or crisis in the political parties, once you defect by section 109(G), automatically you have lost your seat as a member of the house of Assembly.”
Addressing the issue of defection among House of Assembly members, he further reestablished that once legislators defect from their political parties, they automatically forfeit their seats, citing legal provisions.
He also highlighted the efforts of Governor Fubara made towards peace and reconciliation, indicating his reluctance to employ coercive legal measures against defected members.
“In the spirit of peace and reconciliation, the governor of Rivers State, after meeting with the President Bola Tinubu, said, I would not set the coercive legal machinery against these persons. They have defected and that is self-executory. Once you defect, you have lost your seat as a member of the House of Assembly or as a legislator in the country.”
Inko-Tariah also stated emphatically that the people of Rivers State are only fighting in a bid to protect the governor’s seat. He added that the eight-point agenda signed by the governor in Aso Rock, was not planned on legality but on legitimacy.
“Unfortunately, these persons, because they are acting out a script, written for them by a certain person, they have decided to exceed their brief. What he told the world is, you are flouting the morals of the legislative procedures, you are there at my mercy. What Rivers people are fighting for is the office of the governor of Rivers State and not for Governor Sim Fubara, otherwise the elder’s council would have withdrawn the suit in court. What happened with the eight-point agenda in Aso rock was not planned on legality but on legitimacy.”
He also addressed allegations made by local government chairmen, of the governor withholding local government allocations, dismissing them as baseless. He clarified that delays in fund disbursement were routine
“We had this tendentious statement from the local government chairman. The local government chairmen said the governor is holding back their allocation. That is not true. We have a jack at the end of every month and it is normal that the jack could be delayed by one or two weeks. The only local government that withheld their allocation was Emohua and that is because their chairman bugged at the increment of workers Salary.”
Chioma Kalu
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