By Kolawole Ojebisi
There was another twist to the crisis rocking Rivers State on Tuesday following a declaration of seats occupied by certain legislators vacant by the Martin Amaehule-led faction of the State House of Assembly.
The Amaehule-led faction is loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike while the seats declared vacant belong to lawmakers who are loyalists of Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Ever since the rift between Fubara and his predecessor erupted , Wike, it spilled over to the State House of Assembly. And expectedly, it has been a tug of war between the two contending factions in the State House of Assembly .
The two factions in the legislative chamber are the Victor Oko-Jumbo and the Amaewhule faction. The two factions are said to be bent on taking over the leadership of the House of Assembly with each citing one legal verdict or the other to back up his stance.
It would be recalled that the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja recently granted legality to the Amaewhule leadership of the Assembly.
But in a swift reaction, the the Victor Oko-Jumbo-led lawmakers insisted Amaewhule and his group had ceased to be lawmakers in the state.
The group called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a by-election to fill the vacant seats.
Those whose seats were declared vacant by the lawmakers loyal to Wike were Edison Ehie, who is now the Chief of Staff to the Governor and three others, citing their absence from sittings for 56 days.
The resolution of the factional House followed a motion by its factional leader, Major Jack.
Amaewhule, who stated this while presiding over plenary in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, said Ehie did not properly write to inform the House of his new office, and as such, his seat had been declared vacant.
In a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Tuesday by the Special Assistant on Media to the Speaker, Martins Wachukwu, the assembly declared the seats of the three lawmakers vacant for absenteeism.
The statement reads partly: “In compliance with the combined provisions Section of 109 (1)(e),(f) and Section 109 (2) of the 1999 Constitution as altered, the Rivers State House of Assembly, on Tuesday, at its 56th Legislative Sitting of the Second Session, declared vacant the seats of Hon Edison Ogerenye Ehie, Hon Victor Oko Jombo, Hon Adolphus Timothy Oruibienimigha and Hon Sokari Goodboy Sokari, representing Ahoada East II, Bonny, Opobo/Nkoro and Ahoada West Constituency respectively.
“Riding on the back of a motion moved by the House Leader, Hon Major Jack and co-sponsored by 25 other members, that the seats of these four members be declared vacant for their continued refusal or failure to attend and participate in legislative meetings of the House, without just cause for a period amounting in aggregate, to more than one-third of the total number of days the House met in the first session of the Tenth Assembly and for also being absent in the past 56 legislative sittings of the Second Session.”
When the factional speaker put the question to voice vote , the House voted in the affirmative that the seats of the four members be declared vacant and the Independent National Electoral Commission be notified to conduct elections to fill the vacancies.
However, the Oko-Jumbo-led faction of the assembly didn’t take the decision of the other faction lying down.
The Oko-Jumbo faction quickly fired a counter-statement.
The faction insisted that the legislative seats of Amaewhule and 24 others remained vacant following their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.
It said the vacant seats must be filled through a bye-election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The Assembly, in a statement signed by its Speaker, Oko-Jumbo, in Port Harcourt, said the 25 legislative seats were declared vacant on December 13, 2024, by the then legitimately recognised Speaker, Ehie, and regretted that the INEC had been foot-dragging on the conduct of bye-election to fill the vacant seats.
He said that the inability of INEC to do the needful since December 13, 2023, created room for unnecessary distractions from Amaewhule and his committee of friends.
Oko-Jumbo then called on the commission to discharge its constitutional responsibilities to the people of the State.
“Please, recall that on the 11th day of December, 2023, Martin Chike Amaewhule and 24 others defected from the Peoples Democratic Party that sponsored their election into the Rivers State House of Assembly to the All Progressives Congress. Their defection was headline news and widely reported in print and electronic media.
“On the 13th day of December 2023, the defection by Martin Chike Amaewhule and 26 others was further cemented in an affidavit deposed to by Martin Chike Amaewhule, when in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1681/2023, Martin Chike Amaewhule & 26 Ors v. INEC & 5 Ors. in paragraphs 15 thereof, he deposed as follows:‘That faced with the state of uncertainty and confusion in the 2nd defendant (Peoples Democratic Party) caused by division in the political party, the plaintiffs were forced by the state of affairs within the second defendant to defect and join the All Progressives Congress.
“On the 13th day of December, 2023, Rt. Hon Edison Ogerenye Ehie, as then Speaker, declared the seats of Martin Chike Amaewhule and 24 others in the Rivers State House of Assembly vacant and called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a bye-election to fill their vacant legislative seats. This has not been challenged and set aside by any court of law.
“Subsequently, I was elected as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly. Myself and the Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have been piloting the affairs of the Rivers State House of Assembly, including passing resolutions and screening various eminent persons as commissioner-nominees and recommending them to His Excellency, the Governor of Rivers State, to be appointed and sworn in as commissioners, among others.
“Truth and facts are constant, sacrosanct and indelible. The fact of the defection by Martin Chike Amaewhule and 24 Ors cannot be erased by pretenders like Martin Chike Amaewhule and his committee of friends.
“Today, the 15th day of October 2024, Martin Chike Amaewhule & 24 Ors who ceased to be members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, on December 11, 2023, purportedly declared vacant the legislative seats of Rt. Hon Victor Oko-Jumbo and others as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. They have no such powers. This is an exercise in futility. It is a joke taken too far.
“As the Rt. Honourable Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, I call on INEC to immediately conduct a bye-election to fill the legislative seats declared vacant on December 13, 2023.
“I also call on Nigerians and the good people of Rivers State in particular to ignore the vituperations and ranting of Martin Chike Amaewhule and his committee of friends.
“They are not members of the Rivers State House of Assembly not to talk of having the powers to declare vacant the legislative seats of legitimate Assembly members, who have remained steadfast and did not defect like them,” he added.
The crisis in the Rivers State Assembly is a reflection of the power play and the battle for the political control of the state between Fubara and Wike.
