Senate rivals House of Reps in checking Tinubu’s River emergency rule
Nigerian Senate has rivaled the House of Representatives by setting up an 18-man committee to monitor the activities of Rivers State Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.).
Cornet News had reported that the House of Reps similarly raised a special committee, headed by Majority Leader Julius Ihonvbere.
On its part, the Senate named Majority Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, to lead its committee in playing oversight on Ete-Ibas’s administratorship.
Other members of the committee are the clerk of the Senate and 17 senators, such as Adamu Aliero, Osita Izunaso, Osita Ngwu, Kaka Shehu, Aminu Abass, Tokunbo Abiru, Adeniyi Adegbonmire, Sani Musa, Simon Lalong, Asuquo Ekpeyong, Adams Oshiomhole, Ireti Kingibe, Onyekachi, Idiat Adebule, Ede Dafinone, and Mohammed.
Relatedly, House of Reps Speaker, Rt. Hon Tajudeen Abbas, on Tuesday, stated that the National Assembly would raise a team of respected leaders to reconcile the warring parties in the Rivers State political imbroglio. According to Abbas, “the respected national figures” would “facilitate dialogue, promote peace, and support the restoration of democratic order in Rivers and other conflict-affected regions.”
President Tinubu had appointed Ete-Ibas to as administrator for the state for six months following the political impasse between state Governor Siminalaye Fubara and his estranged political godfather and predecessor, Nyesome Wike – currently minister of Federal Capital Territory.
Governor Fubara had demolished the state house of assembly to prevent his impeachment by 27 state legislators, who are Wike’s loyalists. Insisting that the 27 lawmakers had defected from the ruling PDP in the state to the national ruling All Progressives Congress, Fubara neglected the 27 lawmakers and, instead, supported a three-man legislature composed only of his loyalists.
The political stalemate escalated with the Supreme Court recognition of the majority state lawmakers as bona fide members of the state assembly. The court reprimanded the house of assembly demolition and directed him to present state’s 2025 budget to them. Rather than the political crisis abated, it escalated as militants sympathetic to Governor Fubara bombed a strategic crude oil pipeline.
In his speech announcing the emergency rule, President Tinubu accused Governor Fubara of tacit support to the militants. He justified the state of emergency as a necessary action aimed at restoring peace to the troubled state.
