•Speaker Amaewhule and Governor Fubara
Rivers State lawmakers yesterday disagreed with Governor Siminalayi Fubara on his claims that some elders were frustrating his meeting with them (lawmakers).
Assembly Speaker Martins Amaewhule, who spoke in Port Harcourt, the state capital, described as disparaging the governor’s assertion that Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike failed to fulfil his promise of arranging a meeting between him and the legislators.
Amaewhule said the lawmakers met with the governor many times after the emergency rule but Fubara refused to implement the decisions reached at the peace gathering, reports The Nation.
The Speaker recalled that Wike arranged a meeting between the 27 members of the Assembly and the governor at the minister’s official residence in Abuja.
He also recalled that another meeting was arranged by Wike, which involved members of the Elders Council, some lawmakers and the governor at the residence of the local government chairman, Chief Ferdinand Alabraba.
Countering the governor for failing to show leadership, Amaewhule said Fubara had no reason to attack the minister and Alabraba after such meetings.
He recalled that in one of the meetings between the governor and the lawmakers, Fubara told them that he would not present any other Appropriation Bill to the Assembly.
The Speaker regretted that the Assembly was in the dark about the actions of the governor and that Fubara had been spending money without the approval of the lawmakers.
He said: “Emergency rule was declared and after the emergency rule, we asked the governor to bring his budget so we could take care of all he intended to do. We asked him to present his budget.
“In 2024, he spent without appropriation. In 2025, he was spending. After the emergency, we had a meeting and we asked him to bring his budget.
“Here in that meeting, the governor told us blatantly that he was not going to bring the budget. God is my witness. I shouldn’t have brought all these because we are trying to see how we can mend fences. We kept mum, hoping the governor would do the right thing.
“From September, the governor has been spending without our approval. He has been awarding contracts to his cronies, especially those who masterminded the burning of the Rivers State House of Assembly. They are mocking us that they have been rewarded for burning the Rivers House of Assembly.
“The governor does not seek the approval of the Rivers Assembly. He has been spending money from his back pocket.
“The governor’s outburst is the reason for this conference. We need to set the record straight. The Minister of the FCT means well for Rivers State. He wants peace and wants the state to move forward.
“The minister summoned all the members of the State House of Assembly and 27 of us were present in that meeting in the official residence of the minister in Abuja. The governor sat with us and we had a meeting with him. We were shocked to hear the governor say that no meeting had been called.
“Let us also inform Rivers people that after the emergency rule, the FCT minister also caused a meeting to take place at the residence of Chief Alabraba in GRA, Port Harcourt.
“We had the meeting of the elders’ council, and in that meeting some members were present. How many meetings does the governor want the FCT minister to call for him to do the needful? Is it 100? We didn’t want to do this press conference because we have resolved, following the interventions of Mr. President, to sheathe our swords to allow peace to reign.
“We didn’t want to speak to the press so as not to heat up the polity. We kept quiet even when he refused to bring his appropriation bill.”
Amaewhule said that as part of their investigations about what transpired during the emergency rule, they discovered that the outgone Rivers Administrator left a whooping N600 billion in the accounts of the state.
He said perhaps the governor’s anger was that the House Committee on Education submitted a report that highlighted the collapse of educational infrastructures in the state under Fubara.
Amaewhule said: “Part of what we have found out that transpired during the emergency rule is that the outgone administrator left over N600 billion in the account of Rivers State. The governor has been boasting of how he will use the funds to divide the assembly and buy the members.
“The governor needs to know that members of the Assembly are not for sale. The 27 of us remain committed to the dreams and aspiration of the people and to our constituents. We are prepared to serve Rivers and to do the needful.
“The governor’s outburst disparaging the FCT minister will not help him. The governor does not need to react in a reactionary way just because of the report of the house committee on education. The governor should know that as a governor he ought to be a leader. at the moment he is failing.
“He doesn’t want to be a leader. His outburst does not show him as a leader. He is sending his attack dogs to insult us on social media. This will not help him. He gives them money every day to insult us. it will not help him. All those things are not in the best interest of Rivers.
“He needs to show leadership. We are debunking the governor’s assertions. We have been meeting with him but he had failed to keep to the terms. He doesn’t want to keep to the terms. But we will remain calm.
“In 2023, we started making arrangement to move to the APC. Immediately he heard that we were making the arrangement, he ran to the courts, sponsored people with over 50 cases spending taxpayers’ money to ensure that our seats were declared vacant. But all his attempts failed. The governor is now in APC and we welcome him to the APC. The governor should do his job within the constitution.”
