THE NATION
Rivers State continues to dig deeper and deeper into crisis. The House of Assembly was demolished yesterday, weeks after part of it was torched to, rightly or wrongly, stop the impeachment of Governor Siminilayi Fubara. The governor’s political fate hangs in the balance, with 27 members of the assembly opposing him. They are for his godfather and predecessor, Nyesom Wike, now Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister.
On Fubara’s side are four legislators led by Edison Ehie, who got an interim injunction on Tuesday recognising him as ‘authentic speaker’ of the House. Since the injunction was obtained exparte (without the other side present), the task before the 27 other members led by Martin Amaewhule is to get the order vacated. The injunction is obviously to counter the next move by the Amaewhule group which on Monday dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In this fight between godfather and godson, anything can happen and two queer things – the court injunction and demolition of the assembly complex – happened consecutively on Tuesday and yesterday. Fubara has been accused of biting the fingers that fed him and warned against tampering with the political structure that brought him to office. Though, the governor made light of the rift when he described it as “one between a father and the son”, he is not taking things lying low.
To stop the 27 lawmakers from moving against him, the assembly complex has been demolished and may not be rebuilt any time soon. Can that checkmate the lawmakers or will they get another venue for their sitting? The portents are not good.
Exparte orders are not granted as a matter of course. There must be a special interest to be protected. What is that special interest in this instant case? Can four members hold a 32-man house to ransom? Do they have the power to sit and elect one of them, Ehie, as speaker as they did? To prevent the hijacking of the legislature, the Constitution stipulates in Section 96 (1) that: The quorum of a House of Assembly shall be one third of all members of the House.
So, do four men constitute ‘one third of all members of the House’? Well, the court has ruled, giving Fubara and the four lawmakers something to hold on to, for now. For how long will that be and how will it all end? Impeachment of the godson or fall of the godfather? Time will tell.
