By Daniel Abia
Rivers state House of Assembly on Friday said it would never back down on the ongoing impeachment process against the governor, Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Prof Ngozi Odu.
This is as four members of the Assembly have made a dramatic U-turn, withdrawing their earlier calls for dialogue and declaring renewed support for the impeachment proceedings against Governor and the deputy to continue.
The lawmakers are the Minority Leader, Sylvanus Nwankwo; Peter Abbey (Degema Constituency); Barile Nwakoh (Khana Constituency I); and Emilia Amadi (Obio/Akpor Constituency II).
They announced their reversal on Friday during a live broadcast from the frontage of the Assembly complex in Port Harcourt which is a temporary place for their sitting, just two days after publicly urging their colleagues to embrace political solution to resolve the lingering crisis between the executive and thelegislative arms of government.
Explaining the reason behind the sudden change of mind, Nwankwo recalled that he and Abbey had on January 12 appealed for a political solution to the impasse but was surprised that nothing has changed on the part of the governor.
He, however, accused the governor and his deputy of undermining that effort through sustained media attacks on the Assembly through his media aides.
“During the pendency of this appeal, we observed that the governor and the deputy governor deployed their media aides to consistently attack the Rivers State House of Assembly instead of seeking the political solution we proposed,” Nwankwo said. “It is on this basis that we have resolved that the impeachment proceedings should continue.”
In separate remarks, Nwakoh and Amadi said they were convinced that Governor Fubara and his deputy had shown no genuine willingness to resolve the crisis through dialogue, leaving the lawmakers with no alternative than to support the impeachment process.
The latest development comes amid heightened tensions within the Assembly, led by Speaker Martin Amaewhule, which last week formally initiated impeachment proceedings against the governor and his deputy over allegations of gross misconduct.
The allegations include the demolition of the Assembly complex and the alleged expenditure of public funds without legislative approval.
Earlier in the week, the four lawmakers had announced their withdrawal from the impeachment move, citing the need for dialogue and political reconciliation.
Their reversal, however, appears to have reinvigorated the process thereby making nonsense of the earlier insinuations that the plot had collapse like the two previous ones.
On Friday, Assembly members insisted that the impeachment was constitutional and represented the only viable path to resolving the political deadlock in the state.
The renewed push follows the Assembly’s failure to reconvene for plenary on Thursday exactly one week after adjourning its last sitting on Thursday, January 8, a development that had fuelled speculations of deepening internal divisions.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the House was said to have “called” on the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Simeon Amadi to immediately set up a 7-man panel to investigate the alleged gross misconduct against the Governor.
According to a very reliable source close to the Chief of judge, “he is aware of the call for continuation of the impeachment proceedings but he has not been reached. It is not by phone call. They know the process”, the source said.
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