By – Memoye Oghu (Port Harcourt)
The truce brokered by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu between Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State and his estranged godfather and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief (Barr) Nyesom Wike is not going down well with Rivers people.
Those who spoke to this publication described the agreement as “indeed a truce, a fight postponed for another day – a ceasefire.”
Former Senator Benneth Birabi, who represented Rivers South East Senatorial District more than three decades ago condemned the agreement, saying, “we’re back to square one. We’re back to the era where one man would be calling the shots from Abuja. Much as we welcomed the president intervention, we disagree with those terms that are clearly unconstitutional.”
Sen Birabi, who is also among a group of elders in the state, who a day earlier had called for the presidential intervention in the political crisis rocking the state for the sake of democracy and the country, in an exclusive telephone chat with our Correspondent frowned at the directive that the defected 25 lawmakers of the State House of Assembly be allowed back to the party without sanctions.
Joel Dappa, a Publisher, Political Analyst and Strategist described terms of the agreement as unconstitutional, illegal, null and void. “The presidential intervention is a good one on one hand, but the terms of the agreement are dangerously skewed against the governor,” he said, dismissing insinuations that Gov Sim Fubara may have signed the agreement under duress, pointing out that “many political agreements are often done under duress anyway.”
He however, after analysing the political imbroglio between the two political thespians conceded that, “the best Gov Fubara can get out of the present circumstances is this agreement to enable him pause to work out launching strongly into the future. I’ll advise him to have a team of strategists who will chart a political path for him since he’s not a politician.”
Another respondent who refused name in print said that the presidential truce between the duo is detrimental to the state and the growth of democracy in the country. “With that agreement, it means that nobody would be held liable for the criminal infractions during the hostilities. That’s nobody would be held responsible for the burning of the State House of Assembly and those who criminally procured a fake maize for a faction of the State House of Assembly will not be known. They’ll all be swept under the carpet. All criminal matters.
“I don’t believe that Gov Fubara signed that agreement. But if he did, perhaps, under some form of duress he should immediately recant it like the famous Nigeria’s Aburi Accord.”
The eight-point peace deal brokered by President Bola Tinubu and other stakeholders at a crucial meeting in the Presidential Villa, Abuja directed that impeachment moves against Fubara be stopped; Speaker Martins Amaewhule and his G27 lawmakers, who defected from the PDP to the APC be returned back as speaker and members of the Assembly respectively, as well as all matters in court be withdrawn by the governor.
The peace deal signed in the presence of the President, former Governor of Rivers State, Sir Peter Odili and some other stakeholders from the state at the Presidential Villa, Abuja further directed the governor to represent the 2024 N800 Billion Appropriation Bill which has already been accented to by the governor before a properly constituted House of Assembly and that the Parliament, not the governor be allowed to decide their sitting venues.
As the presidential peace deal was ongoing in Abuja, Rivers state Elders and Leaders Forum under the leadership of Chief Rufus Ada-George, former governor of the state was reading the communique of their meeting held on Sunday December 17 in Port Harcourt, the state capital to media men on Monday.
In their communique, the elders called on the President to intervene in the political crisis rocking the state because both politicians failed to respond to their overtures. “The Forum regretted that neither Governor Siminialayi Fubara nor Chief (Barrister) Nyesom Wike responded to our letters seeking for audience with each of them.”
According to the communique dated 17 December, 2023, “the Forum is aware of and thus rejects, the news making the rounds on social media of Forum Shopping And Purchase Of Legal Instruments outside Rivers State to cause crisis in an alleged already written/ premeditated court ruling by one Justice Donatus Okorowo of Federal High Court 8 Abuja on an EXPARTE application secretly filled in the night by Pro Wike former lawmakers which the Judge
wants to deliver tomorrow, being Monday, where he wants to stop the declaration of their seat vacant (an action that have been done) and also give them the legitimacy to move in with DSS and police to start the
illegal impeachment of Gov. Fubara”.
The group confirmed in the media parley that the pro Wike lawmakers have indeed procured the court order as they alerted the public a day before and as verbatim as was stated on the social media. Those present at the media briefing were former governor of the state, Chief Rufus Ada-George; former Deputy Governor of the state, Chief Gabriel Toby; Senator Bennett Birabi;Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe and Ms Ann Kio Briggs.
Others included Captain Sunday Nwankwo; Prof. A. W Obianime; Rear Adm. O. Fingesi; Dr Kio Tams; Prof. Bristol Alagbariya and Dr Silva Opusunju among others.
On the controversial court verdict, Ada-George said: “We saw it (leaked judgement), it was all over the social media. It has been delivered the way it was written. They want to stop the earlier declaration of their seats vacant, an action that has been completed. It has been done today. It is disturbing and it is generating serious tension in the state. It is giving us serious concern. We don’t know what their next action will be.”
Finally, they urged the President to consolidate on his earlier intervention as the consequences of inaction may not only affect Rivers State but the Niger Delta region and the Federal Government as well.
