The Rivers State Government has said that the 27 members of the State Assembly who are loyal to the former state governor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, lack the locus standi to impeach Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
This follows the call by the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the State Assembly that Governor Fubara should be impeached.
News About Nigeria had reported that the leadership of the Rivers APC, through the Party’s Caretaker Committee Chairman, Chief Tony Okocha, demanded that Fubara be impeached in a press conference held today (Tuesday) in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.
Okocha had called for Fubara’s impeachment on the grounds that he had shown disregard and disrespect for President Bola Tinubu.
According to him, this is because the governor has refused to implement all the eight-point peace agreements he signed when the President intervened in the crisis that rocked the state last year.
Reacting to the call for Fubara’s impeachment, the Rivers State Government slammed the APC, noting that it was an empty call as the 27 lawmakers could not impeach Governor Fubara.
The State Information and Communications Commissioner, Joe Johnson, also tackled Okocha on the grounds that he lacked the morality to talk about the state government.
He accused Okocha of not being a legitimate member of the APC.
Johnson further noted that impeaching Fubara would not be an easy journey for the Assembly because the people of the state and the law would resist them.
He said, “It is not going to be an easy journey. They should not imagine embarking on it because Rivers people will resist them. Rivers people will resist them because it is even baseless to think of it. They are not fighting with legitimacy; they are only fighting for their own survival. On what plank will you put that? The law says you can’t put legality on illegality.
“As far as we are concerned, they do not even have the locus standi to do that. They should not even bother to start it because Section 109(g) has settled the case. Tony Okocha was just yesterday declared as not being a member of the APC by a former chairman of the party, Sokonte Davies. He is a factional chairman.”
