The Impetus Group has called on the Federal Government to expedite action in prosecuting a renegade group of six members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, who desecrated the hallowed chambers on July 9, 2013.
The group, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt, through its Director of Media and Publicity, Obinna Ebogidi, stated that prosecuting the Rivers lawmakers would serve as a deterrent to others.
The six lawmakers, backed by the then Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, now Rivers State governor, of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), mobilized over 500 militants and thugs, with strict instructions to attack and maim law-abiding lawmakers, who had rightly resumed their daily job of lawmaking at the Rivers Assembly complex, the statement read.
“The six lawmakers, in the 32-member Assembly, in complete defiance and ridicule of the necessary provisions of the Nigerian constitution, attempted to impeach the then Speaker of Rivers Assembly, Otelemaba Dan Amachree, and the then governor (Amaechi), without meeting the required two thirds majority requirement.
“The lawmakers involved in the abominable and punishable act included Kelechi Nworgu, Micheal Okechukwu Chindah, Victor Ihunwo, Ikuinyi Owaji-Ibani, Martins Amaewhule and their leader, Evans Bipi” it stated.
The impetus group added that it is imperative that the six Rivers legislators (who are still current members of the House of Assembly) are made to face the full wrath of the law, to serve as a deterrent to others who may want to toe the same path and jeopardize the country’s hard-earned and progressing democracy, saying that such crass display of impunity should not be allowed to go unpunished.
“Our plea has become significant, in view of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s commitment to enforce the full weight of the law on any known threat to our democratic journey to the paradise of our dream”
The group noted that the Majority Leader of the Rivers Assembly, Chidi Lloyd, now of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who saved democracy when the impeachment move was made in 2013, is currently being prosecuted by Wike’s administration for alleged malicious damage of the Assembly’s mace, without police investigation/report.
