The Rivers State government has strongly criticized the All Progressives Congress (APC) for urging the State House of Assembly to initiate impeachment proceedings against Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Joseph Johnson, the Commissioner for Information and Communications, issued a statement condemning the APC’s call and warning lawmakers aligned with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, Nyesom Wike, against pursuing such action.
The statement emphasized that any attempt to impeach the governor would face strong resistance from the people of Rivers State.
This response was prompted by Tony Okocha, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the APC in Rivers State, who, during a press conference in Port Harcourt, called for the governor’s removal via impeachment.
Okocha cited Governor Fubara’s criticism of the Abuja peace accord brokered by Bola Tinubu as the basis for the impeachment call, claiming that Fubara’s remarks deemed the accord a political arrangement without constitutional legitimacy.
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The commissioner said: “They should not imagine embarking on it because Rivers people will resist them. Rivers people will resist them because it is even baseless to think of it.
“They are not fighting for legitimacy; they are only fighting for their own survival. On what plank will you put that? The law says you can’t put legality on illegality.
“As far as we are concerned, they do not even have the locus standi to do that. They should not even bother to start it because Section 109(g) has settled the case.
“If an Assembly member defects from his own party that brought him to power, you automatically lose his seat. They have done that and it is settled. Our Constitution is the grand norm.
“The court, the Supreme Court, is there to look at these elementary issues. There is also a subsisting judgment on this, so we don’t need a second opinion on whether we should respect them as Assembly members or not. The Supreme Court has already declared those seats vacant.”
