The All Progressives Congress (APC) South-South Group has accused members of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, of initiating impeachment proceedings against Governor Siminalayi Fubara in retaliation for his refusal to approve fictitious projects in the state’s 2026 budget proposal.
The allegation was made yesterday in Port Harcourt by the group’s coordinator, Freedom Amadi, during a media briefing responding to claims by the assembly that the governor had violated the peace agreement brokered by President Bola Tinubu to end the protracted political crisis in the state.
Read the related story on New Daily Prime: Rivers crisis: Tinubu summons Wike, Fubara abroad as impeachment threat deepens
Amadi described the impeachment move as unrelated to any breach of the presidential accord, insisting instead that it stemmed from the governor’s resistance to attempts to inflate the budget with questionable expenditures.
“What is unfolding in Rivers State is not a constitutional dispute but a deliberate attempt to punish a sitting governor for refusing to mortgage public finances for private political interests,” he stated.
He added: “Governor Siminalayi Fubara did not breach the President’s peace accord; rather, he refused to add fictitious projects to the Rivers State budget, and that refusal is now being weaponised against him.”
The Rivers State House of Assembly has accused Governor Fubara of acting in bad faith, undermining the Tinubu-brokered agreement, and engaging in financial impropriety by spending beyond the 2025 budget provisions claims they say justify the impeachment process against him and his deputy, Professor Ngozi Odu.
However, the APC South-South Group dismissed these accusations, warning that public declarations by some legislators that not even the President could restrain them amounted to institutional insubordination.
“When legislators publicly declare that not even the President can restrain them, they are not asserting independence; they are advertising institutional insubordination,” Amadi declared.
He emphasised that President Tinubu’s intervention was as the elected head of state, not a partisan figure, and that the peace initiative was intended to restore stability and respect constitutional roles, not to enable legislative domination over the executive.
The group further highlighted the alleged influence of Wike, noting that the lawmakers pushing the impeachment were aligned with the FCT Minister.
Read the related story on New Daily Prime: ‘Rivers APC inherited PDP crisis amid Fubara-Wike feud’
Amadi questioned Wike’s loyalty, given his position in the APC-led federal government: “President Tinubu extended trust and political goodwill by appointing a PDP member into his cabinet in the interest of national unity. That trust is being abused if a serving minister allows his loyalists to openly undermine a presidential peace initiative.”
The APC South-South warned that weaponising impeachment for political vendettas would erode public confidence in democratic institutions and undermine the legislature’s credibility.
It called on the Rivers State House of Assembly to immediately suspend all impeachment actions and urged the National Assembly to intervene to curb what it termed legislative excesses.
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