Hon. Igbini Odafe Emmanuel, is a Peace Activist and mutual friend of Wike and Fubara. In this interview, he once more bares his mind on the unresolved political crisis in Rivers state and the effect of the recent decision of the Supreme Court on the withdrawal of the Appeal at Supreme Court by the legal team of Governor Fubara....CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING.>>
He also blames former President Buhari, the 9th National Assembly and the former National leadership of APC for the crisis in Rivers State House of Assembly, insisting that there is only one issue for determination, the legitimacy or otherwise of Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule as Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly since October 29, 2023 and doubts if the Supreme Court will depart from its decision of February 10, 2025.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Other issues pending at the Supreme Court he says hang on this one issue just as he dismissed as untrue, the allegation that Wike presented Rivers State 2016 Budget Proposal to only 6 or 7 members of the State House of Assembly.
What is your reaction to the withdrawal of the Appeal filed by the legal team of Governor Fubara at the Supreme Court which many very senior legal practitioners have interpreted differently?
I am not surprised they differ; it is expected to hear such divergent interpretations from respected legal luminaries on very straightforward and unambiguous decision of the Supreme Court delivered in plain and simple English language. This is the reason sometimes very minor disputes become very complex and unresolved once some legal practitioners are invited to handle them.
I am not saying lawyers are not important and should not be invited to help resolve disputes but it is becoming very disturbing that in some cases the involvement of some Lawyers complicate issues. My candid view of the implication of the voluntary withdrawal of this Appeal is that they did not challenge or dispute the Judgment of the Court of Appeal concerning the reliefs sought by the Plaintiffs and therefore binding on Governor Fubara and all the other Defendants in the matter.
It is settled law and even the Supreme Court of Nigeria has pronounced several times that any allegation or claim not disputed or challenged by affected party is an admission of same.
The major and critical issue in the Judgement of the Court of Appeal now upheld by the Supreme Court is the affirmation of the legitimacy of Hon. Martin Amaewhule and the 25 other members of the Rivers State House of Assembly as Speaker and members of the 10th House of Assembly, respectively.
This is the bitter truth! The extended implication of this is also that all decisions and actions taken so far by Governor Fubara since October 29, 2023 till date that require the constitutional approvals of the House under the leadership of Hon. Martin Amaewhule as Speaker, but which were not presented to the House under his leadership by Fubara, are unconstitutional, null and void until the Governor represents them for reconsideration and approval.
The argument that the 2024 Budget has been spent and therefore can’t be revisited is not true. Yes, the 2024 budgeted and approved funds have been spent as claimed by the Governor and that there is even a 2025 budget that has just been approved by a 3-Member House of Assembly but all of this do not invalidate the provision of section 128 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, as amended, which gives the Rivers State House of Assembly the constitutional power to cause investigation into how the funds were expended and demand that all those persons screened and confirmed for appointments do represent themselves to the House led by Hon. Martin Amaewhule for revalidation to legitimise their appointments. In the civil service this is done under the process called regularisation.
This can also be easily done in these cases if only Fubara and Wike would listen to wise counsel from their sincere mutual friends like me for them to meet and resolve their differences. In all honesty I am not expecting the Supreme Court to depart from its Judgement of February 10th.
All other issues around INEC and Rivers State local government election, release of funds to the legislators and the House of Assembly, screening and confirmation of nominees for appointments and other issues, are all peripherals hanging on the main issue. What for me is paramount now is commencing the process of political settlement of Wike and Fubara with Judgement of the Supreme Court laying the right and proper foundation to help us do so.
But there are people who will disagree with you. They insist that political settlement is completely out of it now and that only the Supreme Court can resolve the matter. Moreover, there are indications that the Wike’s camp is resolved to impeaching Governor Fubara the moment Hon. Martin Amaewhule returns as Speaker.
Firstly, take it from me that Fubara will remain as Governor. He won’t be impeached because he committed no constitutional gross misconduct as at when there was attempt to impeach him in October 2023. I have said long ago that after this storm is over, Wike will support and lead the campaign for Fubara to be re-elected for a second term because Fubara remains the most trusted confidant of Wike from the Senatorial District Fubara hails from.
Does anyone think that Wike did not recognize this fact before he went all out to make Fubara his Successor despite the strong and fierce oppositions from within his inner political family?
The bond between both of them can’t be broken even by either or both of them. I know what I am talking about. It has not been easily for both of them since this minor misunderstanding was hijacked and escalated by those who swore never to allow Wike make Fubara their Governor and those who hate Wike for helping Tinubu become President. Secondly, I don’t agree with those who rule out political settlement in this matter. Supreme Court has never in history been able to resolve political misunderstandings among leaders of same political party and this case won’t be an exception. Yes, election disputes are easily and completely resolved by the Supreme Court but this is not a case of election dispute. The Judgement of the Supreme Court either way it goes, would only help to lay the foundation for political settlement.
Not even the International Court of Justice is able to resolve some disputes between countries just like what we see now between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Palestine. Political Settlement is ultimately deployed to resolve them. Have we not had Judgements of Supreme Court of Nigeria that could not ultimately resolve some disputes until political settlements were adopted because of the political nature of the disputes, ab initio? For instance in year 2010 after the painful death of President Yar Adua, what business had the political leaders of PDP to do with Doctrine of Necessity when the provision of section 146(1) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, as amended, is clear and unambiguous that in such situation, the Vice President being the standby President, automatically takes over as substantive President to serve out the remaining period of the term?
But because of the sensitive and delicate political element in the matter given the fact that there was a Gentleman Agreement for rotation of the Office of President of Nigeria between the North and the South which I was part of canvassing for, to guarantee equal sense of belonging and to engender National Peace and upon which both Yar Adua and Jonathan became President and Vice President, a Political Settlement was agreed to. Have we not had disputes between the Federal Government and State Governors that even Supreme Court could not resolve as hard as it tried to until political settlements were adopted? So, this case between Fubara and his political oga, as he fondly calls Wike, will not be an exception. I assure us and I would lead it.
Who would you blame for this crisis in Rivers State House of Assembly which sees the Governor recognising and relating with only 4 or 3 members of the House?
I place the blame squarely on former President Buhari, APC governors, the leadership of the 9th National Assembly and the then National leadership of APC in year 2019 for failing and refusing to take over the legislative functions of Edo State House of Assembly by invoking section 11(4) of the Nigerian Constitution immediately former Governor Godwin Obaseki deliberately shut out 14 elected members of Edo State House of Assembly out of a total of 24 elected members because they are loyal to former Governor Adams Oshiomole whom was his political leader before they both had their disagreement. They knew that the action of Obaseki was a threat to our constitutional democracy and desecration of the Nigerian Constitution which must not be allowed, but they chose not to take action because many of the APC leaders who were not happy with Adams Oshiomole when he was the national chairman of APC, felt it was time to destroy his political base in Edo State and weaken his influence at the APC national level. If not, how does one explain a situation where Obaseki demolishes part of the Edo State House of Assembly complex and relocated the few members loyal to him to an office in government house from where he directed them to do as he likes.
If he was stopped then by President Buhari and the 9th National Assembly, my dear bro, Governor Fubara, would not have contemplated replicating same in Rivers State no matter any perceived provocation from the members of Rivers State House of Assembly. When this was happening then in Edo State I kept calling on President Buhari and the leadership of the National Assembly to take over the legislative functions of Edo State in order to stop such uncivilised and undemocratic action of Obaseki and to have the 14 members back to the House of Assembly. I had to place full page advert in some national newspapers, grant several interviews to the media and flew to Abuja from my base in Warri for this reason. All that mattered then in APC was to destroy the political base and influence of Adams Oshiomole.
But there are allegations making the round now that when Wike was Governor he also presented the 2016 Budget to only 7 members of Rivers State House of Assembly and therefore he has no moral authority to oppose Fubara for doing same now. What do you say to this?
This is not correct at all. Wike never at any time presented 2016 Appropriation Bill to a 6 or 7-member Rivers State House of Assembly. It is on record that there was never a time between May 29, 2015 and December 22, 2015 that the Rivers State House of Assembly had fewer than 25 members constitutionally recognized and overwhelming number of them were PDP members and loyal to Wike. I challenge anybody to a public debate on this. The unfortunate case we have today under Fubara is that of only 3 legislators out of 31-member Assembly claiming to constitute the State House of Assembly and in position to carry out legislative functions of the State. Few days ago, a former Commissioner of Information under Wike who belong in same Whatsapp group with me made same allegation against Wike claiming that Wike presented the 2016 Budget Proposal before only 6 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and that his own screening and confirmation as Commissioner was also by these same 6 members.
When I asked him to mention the date, time and the names of the 6 members he declined to do so saying that he knows that if he does, I will have over 100 more questions to ask him. One of the follow-up questions I wanted to ask him is the reason he accepted to appear before such alleged few number of members for confirmation but only comes now that he is out of the government, to condemn that alleged process he benefited from? Let me state the facts in order to set the record straight and correct these falsehoods. First, the Rivers State House of Assembly has 31 members declared elected by INEC following the April 2015 House of Assembly Elections with PDP having overwhelming majority of them and therefore had the presiding and principal officers except for few positions reserved for minority parties. On October 26th 2015 or thereabout, the Election Tribunal siting at Abuja annulled the election of the then Speaker of the House and some others who are of PDP. As expected, they filed an Appeal at the Court of Appeal against the decision of the Tribunal which meant that they remained legitimate members of the House until the Court of Appeal decided on their Appeals.
The Court of Appeal did not deliver Judgement on their Appeals until December 23, 2015 and ordered a re-run in all the affected constituencies which was finally conducted and concluded on December 10, 2016. Now carefully listen to this critical information I want to give. Governor Wike presented a N307 billion 2016 Appropriation Bill tagged Budget of Consolidation, to the Rivers Sate House of Assembly on December 22, 2015, a day before the Court of Appeal delivered its Judgement with Hon. Ikuniyi Owaji Ibani still as the legitimate Speaker. So at what time on December 22, 2015 did Hon. Ikuniyi Owaji Ibani and the other members of the Assembly, some of whom are now key appointees of Governor Fubara, suddenly ceased to be legitimate members of the House of Assembly? Two weeks before December 22, 2015, the House with overwhelming majority of PDP members approved a Supplementary Budget of N104.2 Billion for Wike and screened and confirmed 22 Commissioners.
But is this the case today? Some reported that there were few members physically present in the hallowed Chamber when Wike read his Speech and presented his Appropriation Bill but that immediately after, the other members rushed into to join in the ongoing proceeding without any objection. What is instructive for me to state here is that physical presence of members in chamber at any time during deliberation does not constitute the total numbers of members of the Assembly and cannot therefore invalidate the business of the day. We see some times at the National Assembly where plenary is on with only few members sited and later others begin to arrive to join them. Some come in to sign the attendance register and thereafter excuse themselves to attend to other legislative assignments in their Committees or offices or to attend to very pressing personal issues. The letter and spirit of section 91 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, as amended, which deals with composition of a House of Assembly is what is at stake concerning 4 and now 3 members claiming to compose the Rivers State House of Assembly.
This section of the Constitution states clearly that there must be a minimum of 24 elected members to constitute a State House of Assembly. Section 96 of the Constitution went further to say that quorum should be at least one-third of the total elected members signing to participate in legislative business of the day. Rivers State House of Assembly of 31 members must therefore at all times have at least 11 members signing to participate. The 11 of them don’t need to be physically sited at same time in the chamber as I stated in case of the National Assembly. What is important is that there is a legitimate elected Speaker or Deputy Speaker, presiding. Were the APC Legislators present during the Budget presentation by Wike? If yes, how many of them? If no, why were they absent? Lastly let me remind Nigerians that in year 2019, PDP Senators led by Senator Godswill Akpabio staged a walkout from the Senate Chamber while the screening for confirmation of Rotimi Amaechi as Minister was on. Did their walkout in protest invalidate the screening and confirmation of Amaechi as Minister? No, because the Senate had the minimum number of Senators constitutionally required!
