Pro-Wike lawmakers bar Fubara from state revenue, warn against violation

The Rivers State House of Assembly, led by Martin Amaewhule, on Monday, wrote to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, stopping him from spending funds from the state Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The development followed the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum given to the governor by the lawmakers loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, for him to submit the 2024 budget afresh.

The fresh presentation of the budget was among the conditions for peace, signed during a parley held at the instance of President Bola Tinubu to reconcile the factions of Wike and Fubara, in Abuja.

Fubara, in 2023, presented an Appropriation Bill of over N800bn for the 2024 fiscal year to the lawmakers loyal to him, then led by Edison Ehie, for approval.

Barely 24 hours after the budget presentation, the four-member Assembly passed it and presented it to Fubara for assent.

Ehie, then factional Speaker of the House, later resigned and was subsequently appointed Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, by Fubara.

After the peace agreement, the Amaewhule-led Assembly waited for the governor to re-submit the budget.

The crisis, however, got worse, leading to the pro-Fubara lawmakers electing Victor Oko-Jumbo as factional Speaker.

The governor declared that the pro-Wike lawmakers were no longer known to the law, as the court had restrained them as lawmakers in the state, following their defection to the All Progressives Congress.

The lawmakers appealed the judgment and the Court of Appeal, on July 4, quashed the ruling of the high court and reinstated the pro-Wike lawmakers as members of the state House of Assembly.

At their Monday, May 9 proceedings, they gave Fubara a one-week ultimatum to present the budget.

The Assembly, at its fourth Legislative Sitting, held at the Assembly Quarters on Aba Road, on Monday, said Fubara violated the Constitution by spending from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state without an appropriation law.

In a statement by the media aide to the Speaker, Martin Wachukwu, the lawmakers said the decision to bar Fubara from further spending followed a remark by the House Leader, Major Jack.

Jack drew the attention of the Assembly to the fact that “Given the combined provisions of Sections 121 and 122 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as altered, Governor Siminialayi Fubara has flagrantly continued to violate the Constitution by spending from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state without an Appropriation Law’.

“Debating on the statement by the House Leader, members in unison and strong terms condemned Governor Fubara’s wanton disregard to the Constitution, despite repeating reminders of the consequences of his actions and thereby express their support for the shutdown of expenditure from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state forthwith.”

Amaewhule said, “It is unfortunate that Governor Fubara now sees a violation of the provisions of the Constitution and judgments of courts as a way of governance. As representatives of the people, the House would not look the other way while the governor consistently tramples on the Constitution he swore to uphold.”

The House, therefore, resolved to write to Fubara, intimating him of the shutdown of all expenditures from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state.

The House further resolved to notify the Federal Government, its relevant agencies, banks, and local and foreign donor agencies of the development, and to advise them not to have any transactions with the Rivers State government, pending the resolution of matters relating to the 2024 Appropriation Law.

Efforts to reach the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, were unsuccessful, as he neither picked up calls put across to his mobile line by our correspondent nor replied to a text message sent to him as of the time of filing this report on Monday evening.

Meanwhile, a group in Rivers State, G-23, has called on a federal lawmaker, Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, to stop interfering in the politics of the state.

The group, which says it covers all the 23 local government areas of the state, warned Ugochinyere, who represents Ideato North-South Federal Constituency of Imo State, to stop meddling in the affairs of the state.

It also said the roles played by the lawmaker and a national chairman of the Zenith Labour Party, Dan Nwanyanwu since the beginning of the political crisis in Rivers State were stoking further crisis.

Ugochinyere is the leader of G-60 members of the House of Representatives and had been a critic of Wike over the crisis in Rivers State.

Leader of the G-23, Chief Tony Okocha, speaking at a news briefing in Port Harcourt, on Monday, said Ugochinyere should be more concerned about how to initiate bills aimed at solving the “gully-ridden” roads and flooding ravaging his community and the activities of the disbanded Indigenous People of Biafra, rather than commenting on every issue in Rivers State.

Okocha, who is also the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the APC in Rivers State, said the role of Ugochinyere and Nwanyanwu were condemnable.

“We have listened and heard from some quarters and some persons that we have decided in our meetings to tag them ancient and medieval meddlesome interlopers. These groups, one I see on television, are led by Ikenga Ugochinyere, who is a member of the House of Representatives and flaunts a group with a nomenclature of G-60.

“We have today decided to condemn in concrete and absolute terms the activity of a man who should be responsible, who has turned himself to be a hireling of the Rivers State government and the governor.

“It beats our imagination that instead of the gully-ridden roads that characterised his area, instead of the flood issues that are almost sweeping away some communities in his area, he has seen practically nothing.

“Ugochinyere is not from Rivers State. He has seen Rivers as a conduit pipe to siphon money from a government that is rudderless. It is Ugochinyere now that is speaking about issues in Rivers State. We will not accept that,” he said.

He also took a swipe at Ugochinyere over his comments against Wike, saying that the former governor was too big for the lawmaker to deride.

The G-23 leader also condemned the statement allegedly credited to Nwanyanwu, who warned Tinubu that Wike was nursing presidential ambition and would likely contest the 2027 election against him.

“Daniel Nwanyanwu is a serial political failure. What gives him the impetus or why should he imagine that Rivers State is a place for him to fall back? I am not aware that his Zenith Labour Party has an office in Rivers State.

“He (Nwanyanwu) was booted out of the Labour Party. He has left all the trappings of his political failure to become another hireling for the Rivers State government. It is unthinkable,” he said.