Fubara appoints new officials amid dispute with lawmakers

By Hannah Nathan, Warri

Siminalayi Fubara, the governor of Rivers State, has appointed four new people as the State House Assembly is voting to overrule him to enact four new laws.

On Friday, the governor named Ine Briggs the acting director general of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Tonte Davies the acting administrator of the New Cities Development Authority (NCDA), and Goodlife Ben the acting chairman of the Local Government Service Commission.

The governor announced that the appointments are effective immediately in a statement issued by Tammy Danagogo, Secretary to the State Government.

The Rivers State House of Assembly, led by Martins Amaewhule, voted on Friday to overrule Governor Siminalayi Fubara and enact four new bills.

The Rivers Local Government Amendment is one of the bills, the Rivers State Traditional Rulers Amendment Law, the Rivers State Funds Management and Financial Autonomy Law, and the Rivers State Advertisement and Use of State-Owned Property Prohibition repeal law.

Following Amaewhule’s reading of four letters from the governor in which the governor rejected to give his approval to the four new measures that had been forwarded to him for assent, the House decided plenary on Friday.

The House bases its decision on Section 100 Subsection 5 of the Constitution, which states that the governor’s consent is not necessary for the bills to become law.

The house declared that if the governor abstains from giving his or her consent and the bill is once more approved by a two-thirds majority of members, it will become law without the governor’s consent.

Amaewhule further charged that the governor had no intention of holding elections for the state’s local government.

This is arriving a day after the Supreme Court affirmed Governor Fubara’s election.

There are 27 members of the assembly, led by Amaewhule, who support Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory.

The governor is supported by four members of the State Assembly, who were previously led by Edison Ehie, the speaker who resigned to represent Ahoada East Constituency 2.

The political schism between Fubara and Wike is the basis of the state’s political crisis, which President Bola Tinubu has entered.

The interested parties in the situation signed an eight-point settlement (peace accord) to terminate the crisis as a result of the president’s intervention.