- Says new speaker has emerged
Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara has explained that his visit to the residential quarters of the State House of Assembly was to undertake on-the-spot assessment of condition of the structures for a possible rehabilitation work to restore its status and make it habitable.
The governor had made a brief stop at the assembly quarters on Thursday, May 9, enroute Emohua-Abalama-Tema Junction on inspection of the 15.24 kilometre-long dual carriageway project.
According a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Nelson Chukwudi, Fubara, who spoke after the inspection, stated that the assembly quarters is part of the state government properties, adding that the facility needs to be taken good care of.
He noted that the state now has a “new Speaker” for the State House of Assembly, saying that his visit was to see what were necessary to be done.
The New Diplomat reports that in the absence of a timely confirmation, news about the emergence of a “new Speaker” for the Rivers State House of Assembly, floated on social media on Wednesday, May 8, as “fake news.” Governor Fubara has confirmed the viral reports now!
The new Speaker of a three-man lawmakers loyal to Governor Fubara is Hon. Victor Oko Jumbo, representing Bonny State Constituency at the Rivers Assembly, who emerged during a sitting in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, May 8.
Jumbo’s emergence followed the resignation of Rt. Hon. Edion Ehie, now the Chief of Staff to the Governor, who headed a five-member faction of the legislature that passed the N800bn 2024 budget for Rivers State within 24 hours, which Fubara signed the next day.
Fubara visited the Assembly residential quarters on the Aba Road axis in Port Harcourt, to see to its upgrade for a conducive environment for the “new Speaker” and his two members to carry out business of lawmaking, and oversight of government activities in Rivers State.
It’s yet to be seen how the governor will displace the 27 pro-Wike lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who Fubara’s labelled as “not existing,” but occupy the temporary chamber in the residential quarters, and have enacted several bills that Fubara vetoed, and the legislators overrode him, and passed them into law.
Fubara, who took a walk round the quarters during his unscheduled visit, said that he decided a tour of the place to get a better appreciation of what needs to be done to make the quarters conducive for lawmakers.
Fubara said: “Is the assembly quarters not part of ‘my property’? Is there anything wrong in going to check how things are going on there?
“You are aware of the developments. We have a new Speaker, and I went there to see for myself how things are. There might be a few things I might want to do there for the good of our people.”
On the road project, the governor said he was assessing the extent of job that had been done, to know what else was needed in preparing the road for commissioning during his one-year anniversary.
He pointed out that the road project was inherited from the immediate past administration, but a greater chunk of the cost was borne by his administration.
“As a matter of fact, we added this section of the road as one of the projects we will be commissioning. So, I needed to see it myself, and what is remaining is just the lighting. By the grace of God, we will commission it,” Fubara said.
“We feel justified to add it as our project and to commission it for the good of our people here. Governance is all about the people. When the people are out of the centre of governance, then it is no longer governance.
“So, this road, as we all now know, was in a very bad state. A lot of criminal activities were being carried out here: kidnapping and all sorts of things. So, putting this road in order is appropriate.”
The governor added: “You can see the little hour we spent coming here. Before, it takes you 30 to 45 minutes to drive from Emohua to this place. But look at it, less than 15 minutes, we are here.
“So, it is about the people, the good of the people, making life easy for the people. That is the way I see governance. Anything outside that has nothing to do with me.”
