The imbroglio in Rivers State rages on and a factional Speaker of The House of Assemby has emerged on Wednesday , a day after Governor Fubara declared that Rivers State has no House of Assembly, this is creating confusion and escalating the political crisis in the Oil rich state.
The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, Chukwudi Nelson, in a statement said that Hon Victor Oko-Jumbo, The Member representing Bonny State Constituency, is the factional Speaker.
The factional Speaker, Hon Oko-Jumbo and G. M. Gillis-West who claims to be the said clerk of The Assembly in a statement claimed that Hon Oko-Jumbo emerged as “Speaker” during plenary on Wednesday.
The fact that the statement announcing the emergence of Mr Oko-Jumbo as a factional speaker is being circulated by the spokesperson to Mr Fubara shows that The Governor is in support of the development.
The Rivers legislature is made up of 32 members, one member tragically passed on shortly after winning the election, leaving 31 members, however 27 of the members are loyal to Nyesom Wike, former governor and present Minister of The FCT while four members are behind The Governor.
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Hon Martins Amaewhule is The Speaker of the Wike-backed faction, while Edison Ehie was the speaker of the four-member faction backed by Governor Fubara.
The political feud between Messrs Fubara and Wike steadily deteriorated, prompting the intervention of President Bola Tinubu, who midwifed a peace deal between them after the seats of Mr Wike-backed lawmakers were declared vacant following their defection to the APC.
After the peace deal, Mr Ehie resigned as speaker and also from the assembly. He was appointed chief of Staff to Governor Fubara, leaving the governor’s faction with just three lawmakers.
It is not clear if Mr Oko-Jumbo’s emergence as speaker has the backing of the other two lawmakers. Hon Oko-Jumbo in his acceptance speech thanked the members for electing him as The New Speaker as result of the vacuum created by the resignation of the former factional speaker, Hon Ehie who he referred to as former Speaker “You will agree with me that after the House last sat on the 13th of December, 2023, and adjourned sine dine, there has been an avalanche of legislative rascality perpetrated by the 25 former members of the 10th Rivers State House of Assembly, led by the former Speaker, Mr Amaewhule.
“These former members, being fully aware of the provisions of Section 109(1)(g) of the CFRN 1999, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Party (APC) on the 11th of December, 2023.
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“Consequently, the Mr Ehie-led Assembly, on the 13th of December, 2023, wrote to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declaring the seats of the 25 lawmakers vacant in line with Section 109(1)(g) and (2) of the CFRN 1999.
“My distinguished colleagues, there are a plethora of cases pending in our courts further to the defection of the former lawmakers.” The statement said.
Hon Oko-Jumbo called the Wike-backed assembly illegal ,declaring that actions taken by them were null and void.
“All laws, plenary sessions and actions taken by the illegal House members are hereby declared void and a nullity in the eyes of the law by the judgment of Lord Denning in the celebrated case of MacFoy v UAC (1961) 3 All ER 1169.
“Lord Denning held in that case that you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand. Particularly, Lord Denning stated: ‘If an act is void, then it is in law a nullity. It is not only bad but incurably bad. There is no need for an order of court to set it aside.
“It is automatically null and void without more ado, though it is sometimes more convenient to have the court declare it to be so’.
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“You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stay there. It will collapse,” he continued while calling on
the executive arm, the judiciary and the general public to disregard every law enacted by the “illegal” assembly members. He called on Governor Fubara to stop dealing with the other faction of the assembly forthwith.
“Those members are merely floating and do not have any landing ground or anywhere to berth their ship since their defection to the All Progressives Congress on the 11th of December, 2023.
“This House is the legally and constitutionally recognised House of Assembly by the defection of the other members and is ready to receive correspondences from and work with the Governor of Rivers State, Mr Fubara. Distinguished colleagues.” He said.
