“Your seats remain vacant” Fubara Replies to Amaewhule’s 7-day Ultimatum to Resubmit the 2024 budget
The battle line was yesterday drawn again in Rivers State between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and 27 members of the House of Assembly, led by Speaker Martins Amaewhule.
The governor insisted that the seats of the 27 lawmakers were vacant, recalling that they had ceased to be members of the House since December 13, last year.
Fubara rejected the seven-day ultimatum issued by the Amaewhule-led lawmakers to him to re-present the 2024 Appropriation Bill, describing it as “noisemaking from delusional folks”.
The Court of Appeal last week in a judgment said the Rivers State High Court, which suspended Amaewhule and 24 others from the House of Assembly, as lacking jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
Following the judgment, Amaewhule and others resumed plenary on Monday and requested Fubara to re-submit his 2024 appropriation bill.
They gave him seven days ultimatum.
However, the governor maintained that since the lawmakers had defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), they had forfeited their seats.
Fubara spoke on the political crisis when stakeholders, including party leaders, opinion leaders, women and youths of Etche and Omuma local government areas, led by Ogbakor Etche, the apex socio-cultural organisation of Etche Ethnic Nationality Worldwide, visited him at Government House in Port Harcourt
The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Nelson Chukwudi, dismissed the threat by the Amaewhule-led lawmakers as empty.
Describing them as former lawmakers, Fubara advised them to wake up from their slumber and embrace reality.
He said his administration had started preparing the 2025 Appropriation Bill, with priority placed on education, healthcare and agriculture.
Fubara said: “Let me assure you that agriculture is an area that we have promised the very special and peace-loving people of Rivers State that our 2025 budget, which we have already started preparing, will address.
