HOW would you describe the intervention of the National Assembly in the crisis rocking the Rivers State House of Assembly?
It is constitutionally permissible and
they are acting in line with the 1999 Constitution as amended. It is a
welcome development. If you recall, at various fora, I have always bared
my mind that the current Assembly under the leadership of Mr. Otelemaba
Amachree has been very mindful that we do not play into the game plan
of certain anti-democratic elements, who are, at all cost, trying to
frustrate the present democratic governance. With the intervention of
the National Assembly, I think it is a welcome development. It will
permit time for this crisis to die down.
The crisis was initially at the
surface but deepened up to the point that the state House of Assembly
has been seriously affected. At what point did the House begin to
experience division among its members?
We are all human beings with different
backgrounds, just like you and I. We cannot always look at issues the
same way. I think the division is traceable to when the House sat back
and reviewed the activities of the executive arm of government under the
leadership of Mr. Rotimi Amaechi and we said ‘this man had done so
well, why don’t we give him a pat on the back?’ That was when we
realised that we were not speaking with one voice. At the end of the
day, some of our members disagreed, saying there was no need for
commendations. We started noticing that we were not all together.
The division among members of the
House became obvious when a court in Abuja ruled that Mr. Felix Obuah
should take over as the state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party.
A judgment is a judgment until
otherwise. If you also look at it this way; every man that is
fair-minded will always disagree with that ruling. Felix Obuah did not
buy a form to contest during the primary election. He (Obuah) was not
even on the shores of this country during the state PDP primary. If you
are fair-minded, sincere and God-fearing, of course, you would want to
disagree with such a ruling. Most times, some of us don’t look beyond
the present because of whatever interest we have.
After the brawl in the House of
Assembly complex, Mr. Evans Bipi insisted that he was the Speaker of the
House and Mr. Otelemaba Amachree also said he was still in charge. How
would Rivers people reconcile this?
I don’t intend to deal with that matter,
if not for the fact that it is important to keep the record straight. I
have to bare my mind on this issue. Even in a community setting, town
hall meetings, market women have rules that guide their conduct. They
have rules that they stand by. When you talk of Bipi being elected as
the Speaker, what is the percentage of the lawmakers who elected him?
The House is made up of 32 members and five members cannot sit somewhere
to say they have elected one among them as the Speaker. There are
rules. If you want to remove a Speaker, you need two-third majority of
members, which is about 22 or 23. How many of them seated, so to speak?
If Bipi is saying a thing like that, then it is more or less a coup
against our democracy and it cannot stand. Like the legal maxim will
say, you cannot place something on nothing and expect it to stand.
Do you think there is somebody
drumming support for the five anti-Amaechi lawmakers for them to have
thought of removing the Speaker?
I will neither say yes nor say no. As
someone who comes from a traditional farming setting, I used to follow
my mother to the farm. If she sees a small bird dancing on the road, my
mother would always tell me that there is somebody somewhere beating the
drum for that bird. If not, there is no way you can see such zeal and
confrontational attitude of the five lawmakers. If you were around the
Assembly yesterday (Tuesday) you would have been shocked that my
brother, Bipi, was the one issuing the order under the nose of the
police authorities.
As it is now, who is the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly?
Amachree is the Speaker and I am his
deputy. There is no controversy about this because the House sat
yesterday (Tuesday) and considered a request from the state governor,
who requested for a minor amendment on some areas of the 2013 budget.
The deputy governor, who represented the governor, was there in session
and we sat. It was considered and an approval was given to the executive
arm of government to carry on with that expenditure. So, Amachree still
remains the Speaker, I am his deputy. Nothing has changed, as I speak
to you. Nothing has changed until they (anti-Amaechi lawmakers) are able
to get the required majority. That is our rule; it is a standing order.
What do think has been the role of the police in this crisis, especially as it concerns the fight in the chambers of the House?
I don’t want to join issues anymore with
the police, but I want to commend the National Assembly under its
current leadership. They have done excellently well. They are not
folding their arms, watching the police allow this state to degenerate
to a state of lawlessness. With the maturity they have demonstrated, I
think the current commissioner of police is out of the way. When a
professional policeman comes to the state, we will not have any issue
because, as far I am concerned, the current police hierarchy in the
state seems to be more political than even the politicians.
Bipi, who was about reading his
acceptance speech before Governor Amaechi came in, decried the presence
of the governor in the Assembly complex. How do you react to that?
Don’t forget that the governor is the
governor of the whole state. Don’t forget that the governor was voted in
to protect lives and property. Don’t forget that at the point the
governor came, it was more like a distress call. If the governor had not
come in with his own security, maybe I would have been dead by now. It
was his presence that saved the situation. Of course, wherever the
governor goes, his security men go with him. It was the governor’s
security men that came to salvage it.
Was it that the policemen on the ground could not save the situation?
They watched and they never reacted. It
was very ugly and very sad that this same police institution that is
managed with tax payers’ money could not protect the life of the
ordinary man in Rivers, as enshrined in our constitution.
Thugs were present in large
numbers on the day the lawmakers fought one another in the chambers of
the House. Were they working for both Bipi and Amachree?
I have served as Amachree’s deputy for
over two years and to the best of my knowledge, he does not patronise
thugs. I believe that the issue of the thugs brought into the House was
planned by our opponents. Don’t forget that we served out notices.
Letters were sent to all the 32 members. The former Speaker, Tonye
Harry, was going to Paris and had to postpone his trip because the third
session of the House was about to sit. Everybody was invited. I believe
that since they were ready for war, they may have brought all of those
thugs.
Are you saying Amachree has been vindicated because he raised the alarm in the past over security issues?
Yes. If you also listen
to a comment by my brother, Bipi, yesterday, he said if there was a need
to remove the governor, he was going to come to that. These are all
mapped-out programmes. How can five persons come and say they have
removed the Speaker? If that Speaker is out of the way, of course, the
next target will be the governor. This morning (Wednesday), he (Bipi)
also said he was going on inspection. This is madness; it is rascality
of the highest order. No right thinking man in Rivers or Nigeria should
fold his arms and watch this thing happen. It is a very dangerous signal
because, if you recall the story of Egypt, it started this way. You
might be thinking that it is just Rivers State, but if the rule of law
is not allowed to take its rightful course, and we degenerate to the
state where the rule of men is allowed to reign supreme, then we may
soon move into anarchy and there is no guarantee that a revolution will
not come out of it.
PUNCH
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Well said Hon. May God continue 2 protect u pple...Amin
ReplyDeleteI like this Man. Hardly will u see a man keep his cool after that unfaitful incident. You have said it all,Nigerians shld nt allow Goodluck and his wife destroy this country. GEJ is already prepared to rig his way into power by 2015 and that his why he doesn't give a damn. God will surely expose those forces plunging our country into perpetual confusion. Good bless Amechi n his loyalist...Amin
ReplyDeletei see more chaos in Rivers state, but to pave way for peace and recontruction then differences must be discussed from the stage of reinstating the suspended local government Chairman (obio/akpor) or latter than that. then people should be ready to shift grounds when need call for it. I will want the citizen to know that non the all fighting in the government house or assembly is as big as the state, so let them all stay neutral.
ReplyDelete