GDI member blames court over crisis in Rivers Assembly

By Mark Lenu

A member of the Grassroot Development Initiative (GDI) simply identified as Prince has blamed the court for the lingering crisis in the Rivers State House of Assembly, citing conflicting court judgments as a major reason for the crisis.

GDI is a political group of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, founded and used by the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike to win the state governorship election in 2015 and 2019 respectively.

Prince told our correspondent that the state Assembly crisis is still lingering because the court had gone ahead to recognise the membership of the Martin Amaewhule led lawmakers despite the constitutional provision that automatically declared their seats vacant for defecting from the PDP to the APC.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had on Thursday last week affirmed Martin Amaewhule as the recognised Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal had in a unanimous judgment, dismissed the appeal filed by the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, for lacking in merit.

The appellate court firmly upheld the January 22 judgment of the Federal High Court, delivered by Justice James Omotosho, which nullified the 2024 N800 million Rivers State budget of renewed hope on the grounds that it was not presented before the members of the state Assembly as required by law.

The court held that Governor Fubara’s decision to present the 2024 Rivers State Appropriation Bill to only four out of 31 members of the Assembly constituted a gross violation of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

“I am a GDI member. The Appeal Court judgment favours my group because Amaewhule and other defected lawmakers are products of GDI fully loyal to our grand patron, Chief Barr. E.N Wike but I hate injustice.

“The court was supposed to be the settler of conflicts not the causative agent of conflicts. Nobody expected the court to affirm the membership of the lawmakers who voluntarily left the party that brought them to power for another party. It is wrong and unconstitutional, ” he said.

The latest tension in the state House of Assembly was sparked by the declaring of Victor Oko Jumbo and other lawmakers loyal to the governor as non members of the state Assembly by the Martin Amaewhule led Assembly.

The Amaewhule led state Assembly also requested the governor to represent the 2024 budget before the House. A bill that has long been passed by the Oko Jumbo led Assembly and signed into law by the governor and is undergoig implementation.