₦airaland Forum

Pro-Wike Rivers Assembly bars Fubara from appointing chairpersons for local councils

Coming days after a controversial peace deal brokered by President Bola Tinubu, it appears the Rivers political crisis is far from over.

The Rivers House of Assembly on Friday stripped Governor Siminalayi Fubara of power to appoint a caretaker committee for local government areas in the state after rejecting the governor’s veto against the legislation.

The lawmakers overwhelmingly voted against Mr Fubara’s veto, before passing the bill into law, thus barring the governor from exercising the power enjoyed by his predecessor, Nyesom Wike.

With the bills now becoming laws, it means the governor will conduct an election at the expiration of the tenure of the current officials.

The three-year tenure of the current council officials in the state who were elected in 2021 will expire within the first quarter of this year.

The Speaker of the House, Martin Amaewhule, during Friday’s plenary, read four letters addressed to him by the governor wherein Mr Fubara declined assent to four new bills which had been sent to him for assent, Channels TV reported.

The lawmakers, who cited Section 100, subsection 5 of the Nigerian Constitution, said the assent of the governor was not required for the passage into law of the said bills.

The section states that, “Where the Governor withholds assent and the bill is again passed by the House of Assembly by two-thirds majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the Governor shall not be required.”

The speaker accused the governor of not planning to conduct local government elections in the state.

The speaker said, “The key thing here is that this law removes the power of the Governor to appoint caretaker committee chairmen for the local governments, the governor is not happy that we’re removing his powers to appoint caretaker chairmen.”

The lawmakers also passed into law three other bills which the speaker said were vetoed by the governor. They are the Rivers State Traditional Rulers Amendment Law; the Rivers State Advertisement and Use of State Owned Property Prohibition repeal law; and the Rivers State Funds Management and Financial Autonomy Law.

This is the first time that the assembly has overrode Governor Fubara’s veto.

Coming days after a controversial peace deal brokered by President Bola Tinubu, it appears the Rivers political crisis is far from over.

The crisis had split the state assembly into two factions – with 27 members pledging their loyalty to Mr Wike while four stood with Mr Fubara.

The seats of the pro-Wike lawmakers were declared vacant after their defection to the APC but Governor Fubara and the other lawmakers would later allow them return to the assembly with the rights and privileges restored as part of the peace deal.

The supreme court has upheld the 30-day prison sentence of Alex Okoh, former director-general (DG) of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), for failing to obey an order since 2012.

In the judgment delivered on Friday, the apex court also awarded N20 million cost against Okoh and BPE in favour of BFIGroup, a Nigerian-American consortium.

BACKGROUND

In December 2019, Anwuli Chikere, judge of a federal high court in Abuja, ordered the arrest and imprisonment of Okoh.

The judge accused Okoh of serial disobedience of the supreme court order over the ownership controversy of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON).

BFIG had won the bid to take over ALSCON in 2004 but was disqualified by the BPE under the leadership of Okoh.

In 2012, the supreme court declared BFIG the rightful winner of the bid for ALSCON but the BPE refused to hand over ownership to the firm.


BFIG initiated a contempt suit against the BPE and Okoh, its DG, for failing to obey the supreme court order.

However, despite being issued a notice of the commencement of contempt proceedings, popularly called Form 48 which stated the consequences of disobeying court order, the BPE DG refused to appear in court to answer to the allegations against him.

The federal high court held that the continued refusal of Okoh to obey the supreme court order was a fundamental violation of the rule of law, which portrayed the government as lawless.

In January 2022, the court of appeal upheld the judgment of the federal high court.


APPEAL AT SUPREME COURT

Dissatisfied with the court of appeal decision, the BPE filed an appeal before the supreme court.

However, the appeal was dismissed on Friday.

Aside from the N20 million fine, the apex court issued an order of perpetual injunction restraining BPE from going into any negotiations or contract with any other investor over the sale of the federal government equity in ALSCON.

Also, the court ordered the immediate sack from the plant of UC RUSAL, a Russian firm, that the BPE handed over the plant to after cancelling the declaration of BFIG as winner of the bid.

Meanwhile, early in January, President Bola Tinubu sacked Okoh from office as BPE DG

Supreme Court Affirms Sim Fubara as Duly Elected Governor of Rivers State.

Congrats to Rivers State. pic.twitter.com/2KFz3EWF4X

— SOPIRINYE (@sopirinye9) January 25, 2024