The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has once again expressed his support for the Rivers Assembly in its conflict with Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Fubara and the Assembly, headed by Martin-Amaewhule, have engaged in a series of claims and counterclaims regarding the presentation of the state’s 2025 budget. This deadlock arose following a Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the lawmakers’ status as legitimate members of the Rivers State Assembly.
Consequently, the Assembly requested that Fubara re-present the state’s 2025 budget, which he had initially submitted to a faction of lawmakers led by Victor Oko-Jumbo. Amid the ongoing dispute between the legislature and the governor, who has accused the lawmakers of obstructing his efforts to re-present the budget, Wike has reiterated his support for the Rivers State House of Assembly.
“Let me tell you, I’m not going to stop the Assembly from performing their constitutional duties. The Assembly should be allowed to perform their constitutional role,” Wike said on Saturday during a Thanksgiving Service held in Abalama, Asari-Toru Local Government Area (LGA) of Rivers State.
“The Assembly people should do their work. Whatever they deem necessary and fit, that is constitutional, they should do. I’m not going to stop anybody from carrying out their functions. I will not do that,” the minister said.
The former governor of the state has accused Fubara of appropriating allowances and other benefits that belong to the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. Wike asserted that Fubara was misled into acknowledging a certain group of legislators and was mistakenly assured that “Nothing would happen.”
“You went, and they told you to seize Assembly members’ salaries, and allowances for more than one year. These people have no income to pay their children’s school fees and feed their families, and you were jubilating. You were jubilating and people were encouraging you that nothing would happen. But something has happened,” the FCT minister who is also a chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) told the jubilant crowd.
“They will lead you to hellfire,” the minister warned Governor Fubara.
