Wike: Heavens Won’t Fall If Fubara is Impeached
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, yesterday, scoffed at threats of consequences over purported plans to impeach Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara, saying the sky isn’t going to fall if he is impeached.
Wike’s comments came after the Rivers State House of Assembly, led by Martins Amaewhule, yesterday, denied Fubara access to the Assembly premises for a re-presentation of the 2025 appropriation bill, which was ordered by the Supreme Court.
The governor said he was prevented from entering the compound, despite the fact that he had notified the Assembly of his intention to visit in view of their request that he re-presented the 2025 appropriation bill.
The relationship between the governor and the legislature, peopled mainly by Wike’s loyalists, soured early in his tenure following political disagreements with his predecessor, now FCT minister.
Things seemed to get quite bad for the governor recently after the Supreme Court reinstated the Amaewhule-led legislators.
But foremost group of elders from the oil producing region, the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), asked President Bola Tinubu not to consider any party to the crisis superior.
PANDEF urged Tinubu to take decisive steps to resolve the escalating crisis, contending that a win-win outcome must be sought outside the courts.
The group urged the president to prevail on Wike and Fubara to prioritise peace and seek a lasting solution.
At the same time, Ijaw National Congress (INC) reiterated its position that if Fubara was impeached for any reason, the consequences would be too heavy for the Nigerian state to bear economically.
Urging the president to prevail on Wike and Fubara to seek an amicable resolution for the sake of peace and stability, INC said it was concerned by the prolonged political impasse in the state.
However, addressing some of the latest concerns on the Rivers crisis, Wike described PANDEF, whose members met Tinubu to try to proffer solution to the festering political crisis in the state, as an unreliable organisation made up of political merchants, only motivated by money.
Wike, who spoke on a live television interview, said if Fubara had, indeed, breached the tenets of the constitution and the House of Assembly deemed the infraction an impeachable offence, then the governor should be impeached.
The minister warned the Ijaw ethnic group against threatening the peace in Rivers State with the threat to blow up pipelines in the event the governor, who is of Ijaw stock, was impeached, saying the Ijaw do not constitute the majority in the Niger Delta.
