Pro-Fubara Assembly Faction Screens Commissioner-nominee Today

The faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara will today (Monday) screen another set of commissioner-nominee for the governor’s cabinet.

The factional Assembly, led by Victor Oko-Jumbo as Speaker, via a public announcement invited “Emmanuel Frank-Fubara for screening and confirmation and a member of the Rivers State Executive Council.”

The public announcement was signed by the Clerk of the factional Assembly, Dr G. M. Gillis-West.

“The nominee is to come along with 12 sets of his Curriculum Vitae and the originals and photocopies of his credentials,” the statement said.

It is the third time the Oko-Jumbo factional Assembly will be screening commissioner-nominees for Fubara.

Last week, the Court of Appeal in Abuja set aside an order of a Rivers State High Court restraining the pro-Wike lawmakers, led by  Martin Amaewhule, from parading themselves as lawmakers and making laws for the state.

The Rivers High Court had ruled on a suit contending that the pro-Wike lawmakers had lost their seats after defecting from their party, the Peoples Democratic Party, to the All Progressives Congress.

But the Court of Appeal reversed the high court’s decision on the grounds of lack of jurisdiction.

On Sunday, the leadership of the Rivers APC hailed the judgment returning the pro-Wike lawmakers to the Rivers Assembly.

A member of the Rivers APC Caretaker Committee, Chibuike Ikenga, said the factional legislators loyal to Fubara were merely playing to the gallery with their threat of heading to the Supreme Court to challenge the appeal court’s verdict.

Ikenga said, “We heard they have approached the Supreme Court but it is impossible because the Certified True Copy of the Court of Appeal’s judgment has not been released to anybody. It is what you need before heading to the apex court. They will have to wait for the CTC to know exactly what the appellate court said before approaching the Supreme Court.

“So, what they are doing now is just playing to the gallery. The system does not allow that. The law is the law, whether at the appellate or Supreme Court. We know that the Court of Appeal accepts that the state high court lacks jurisdiction to entertain such matters. That is the position of the law today.

“When the case is taken up to the Supreme Court, they will be able to interpret the status. They are likely to validate the position of the Court of Appeal or set it aside. Whichever position the law chooses, everybody will comply.”

Meanwhile, a former presidential spokesperson, Dr Doyin Okupe, has described the leadership  crisis in Rivers as a “total misfortune,” saying the problem required a political solution.
Okupe, a former Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, expressed his opinion in Lagos on Sunday.