The caretaker Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tony Okocha, has alleged that the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, is seeking court injunctions to obstruct the State House of Assembly from performing its functions.
Okocha, who made the allegation on Thursday during a press briefing at his office in Port Harcourt, also claimed that Governor Fubara intends to utilize the court orders to appoint Caretaker Committees in the 23 local government areas, contravening President Bola Tinubu’s directive outlined in the peace pact signed by the governor, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and others in December 2023.
Mr Okocha expressed his distaste over the governor’s failure to fully comply with the peace accord brokered by President Tinubu.
“I want to use this opportunity to inform Rivers people and Nigerians of the move by the Governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, to procure interim orders from Judges that I may not name here, but I will put in my petition today to the National Judicial Council,” Okocha said.
“He wants to procure an interim order stopping the implementation of the laws which he was vetoed over.
“He wants to procure an order to announce as illegal the Rivers State House of Assembly as constituted and as led by Rt. Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule.
“The Governor is in the business as we speak and I speak with all authority because the walls have ears.
“These are the plans that are on and he is doing that so that he will now leverage on that order to go ahead to appoint caretaker committees in local government against the warning of the man he says he respects, the President.
“But let me put it clearly here that we will stoutly, vehemently oppose such negative subterranean moves by a man who ought to protect the dignity and integrity of a state called Rivers.
“Rivers State cannot be turned into a pariah because of the cluelessness of one person.
“Rivers State is a state to be reckoned with in the comity of nations, highly respected and regarded.
“But see how dangerously we have fallen because we have a Governor who does not understand his left from his right.
“So we put out this clearly to Nigerians and to Rivers people that we will stoutly disobey that,” he added.
Reacting to the allegation, the Rivers State Commissioner for Information, Joe Johnson, said Okocha’s claims were false.
“There is nothing like that. We are not given to backyard business. My governor does not do anything that is illegal and he is not interested in any illegality,” Johnson said.
“Whatever will come from the courts will not come from the back door. We are not like them and the governor has said that he will surprise them so he will surprise them,” he said.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Governor Fubara, while receiving members of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) from the 23 local government areas of Rivers State on a solidarity rally at Government House Gate, Port Harcourt, warned that his adversaries should not misinterpret his composed attitude and willingness to accept the peace accord.
“Let me say it here for record purposes; what is happening here in our dear State is somebody who has respect for an elder,” Fubara said.
“Mr. President invited all the parties to Abuja, and came out with a resolution that we should go and implement. That resolution, I am implementing it. It is not a constitutional implementation, It is a political solution to a problem.
“And I am doing it because of the respect I have for Mr President. But, let me say it here, if that action that I have accepted to take would be seen as a weakness, I will surprise them. I want this message to go to them,” he said.
