Opposition faults Rivers Assembly over resigned commissioners’ re-screening, confirmation

Some opposition political parties in Rivers State have faulted the rescreening and confirmation of nine commissioner-designates by the state House of Assembly, describing it as illegal.

The spokesperson of the Labour Party, Gogo Welington, stated this in Port Harcourt, insisting that the House, currently is not properly constituted.

Welington further said the issue of the 27 lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress is now a constitutional matter.

He stated, “It is a constitutional matter and you know some of these matters are before the courts of competent jurisdiction. They should allow the courts to take their decision.”

Expressing his backing of recent protest by some groups in the state that the lawmakers must vacate their seats for cross carpeting, he noted that the law is clear on the issue of defection.

He added, “For the protest, the people are right, because the law is very clear that if you defect to another party, you are ready to vacate your seat if there is no internal wrangling in your party.

“And in the PDP, there is no wrangling. So the 27 members of the Assembly should know that their seats are already vacant, because constitutionally, they had already left the PDP.”

Similarly, the state chairman of Zenith Labour Party, Ben Ogbobula, explained that the courts should be allowed to make pronouncements on the issues, since most of the matters are already in court.

He said, “Following up the suits that are already in place trying to determine their legality or illegality, because several suits have been instituted on this matter.

“So for them to continue to sit and act as though they are unaware of the laws that they are supposed to protect and make is something that calls for us to wake up as a people and demand that these people stop insulting our sensibilities as citizens of the state.”

Recall that on Wednesday, the Rivers State House of Assembly had screened and confirmed nine commissioner-nominees said to be loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, who had earlier resigned from the administration of Governor Siminalayi Fubara in the heat of the crisis that rocked the minister and the governor.

The commissioners were asked to ‘take a bow and go’ after a brief introduction of themselves, after which the Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, directed the House Clerk to forward the names of the commissioner-designates to the governor for necessary action.