Fubara, Wike: Youth activist denounces Rivers crisis resolution as unconstitutional injustice
Press Release
Fubara, Wike: Youth activist denounces Rivers crisis resolution as unconstitutional injustice
A card-carrying member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and youth activist, Dr. Tom FredFish has condemned the resolution reached in the feud between Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State and his erstwhile boss and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike describing the truce as a “desecration of the Nigerian constitution” and “an arrangement alien to democratic culture and norms.”
Dr. Tom FredFish noted that although the list of conditions for peace which Governor Fubara and others signed in a document that is being circulated on social media and in a news item carried by TVC, is a flagrant violation of Governor Fubara’s liberty as governor, he is particularly interested in one of the resolutions which suggested that the leadership of the Rivers State House of Assembly led by Hon. Martins Amaewhule is recognized and Amaewhule returned as the Speaker of the House alongside with his 26 APC defectors and co-travelers.
The youth activist who instituted a 100 million Naira suit against TELL magazine for denigrating the office of the governor of Akwa Ibom in 2010 and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) for unnecessarily hiking fuel prices in 2017, described the proposed return of the former Speaker as an “intimidating slap” to the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, considering its order in suit marked PHC/3030/CS/2023, where the court restrained Hon. Martin Amaewhule and Rt. Hon. Dumle Maol from parading themselves as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the RSHA.
Dr. FredFish stated: “As far as the laws of the land and the rule of law are concerned, no individual or group of persons can act outside the confines of the constitution or disobey the courts because of a sitting room arrangement by party chieftains to satisfy their political capital. It is illegal, unconstitutional, criminal, foul, and cannot stand.”
“If they want to be returned as speaker and deputy speaker of the House they ought to return to the Court and give reasons why the court should return them to the House and not attempt to go back to the office through a back door.
It is pertinent to point out that going by our laws, Hon. Amaewhule and 26 others are no longer Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, having defected to another political party hence the issue of returning the leadership under Hon. Amaewhule is unnecessary and uncalled for.
Dr. FredFish observed that Hon. (Barr). Edison Ehie is the constitutionally recognized Speaker of the RSHA until the Court says otherwise and cautioned Hon. Ehie never to succumb to pressure to vacate the office because of mere political pronouncement warning him that any attempt to do otherwise, he would charge Ehie to court for contempt as the matter has gone beyond Hon. Ehie as a person.
“I am waiting to see if the resolution will be implemented and have notified my lawyers in White Waters chambers who are on a stand-by to help seek redress in court and to strengthen our laws and ethos of democratic governance, as no man is bigger than the laws of Nigeria”, he concluded.
