Rivers crisis deepens as Fubara relocates State Assembly sitting to govt house

Siminalayi Fubara, the Rivers governor, on Friday gazetted the Executive Order to relocate the House of Assembly to the Auditorium, Admin Block of the Government House, Port Harcourt.

It would be recalled that on December 14, 2023, the document cited the burning of the chamber of the House of Assembly as a reason for the relocation.

In October, some persons broke into the assembly and set it on fire, the development which occurred amid speculations that lawmakers were planning to initiate impeachment proceedings against Fubara.

The governor had subsequently stormed the chamber alongside some of his supporters. He had vowed that removing him would be tough.

In the gazette, Fubara said the current state of the chamber was unsafe and threatened the lives of the legislators and their staff.

He said: “Now, therefore, I, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, the Governor of Rivers State, this 30th Day of October 2023, pursuant to the powers vested in me under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, hereby issue order and direct that all proceedings and business of the Rivers State House of Assembly shall temporarily take place at the auditorium, Admin Block, Government House, Port Harcourt, until the repairs, renovation and reconstruction of the chambers of Rivers State House of Assembly.”

The crisis in the state took a new turn after Chief Tony Okocha, Chairman of the caretaker committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers, asked the lawmakers loyal to Nyesom Wike, Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to impeach the governor.

The Fubara faction of the assembly, which went underground after the intervention of President Bola Tinubu, bounced back after the impeachment threat, electing a speaker.

On Friday, a Rivers court barred the pro-Wike lawmakers from parading themselves as assembly members.