Why Wike And His Rivers Lawmakers Went Quiet On Fubara’s Impeachment–Fubara’s Ally
Why Wike And His Rivers Lawmakers Went Quiet On Fubara’s Impeachment–Fubara’s Ally
An official in Rivers state government who previously told us about the presidency advising governor Fubara to use the court to frustrate his impeachment as Ondo state governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa did in preventing his removal as deputy governor in 2023, has now told Reliant.ng on condition of anonymity that FCT minister, Nyesom Wike and the 26 members of the Rivers state House of Assembly’s silence since the January 17th restraining order, symbolizes that the former governor has been tamed.
According to the source, neither Nyesom Wike, his media aide, Lere Olayinka, nor the 26 members of the Rivers state House Assembly pushing for Fubara’s impeachment, have publicly commented on the January 17th interim restraining order by justice F.A Fiberesima of the Rivers state High Court to the Rivers state chief judge, Justice Simeon Amadi.
Recall that the interim restraining order mandated Rivers state chief judge, Someone Amadi not to receive any communication from the Rivers state assembly leadership pertaining to the impeachment proceeding initiated against governor Sim Fubara nor comply to the directive from the state assembly leadership.
The source alleges that following the restraining order from the Rivers state High Court, Nyesom Wike sought to create legal knot by approaching a Federal High Court in Abuja to obtain a court order that will mandate the Rivers state assembly leadership to go on with the impeachment proceeding against Siminalayi Fubara.
According to him, Nyesom Wike knew that the state High Courts and Federal High Courts have concurrent jurisdiction on impeachment of a state governor, he however wanted to create legal complication with the hope of destabilizing the state.
The source claims that former governor Nyesom Wike through his proxies requested a conflicting court order to the Rivers state High Court restraining order but his request was declined by the Federal High Court judges who cited president Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s interest in the matter as the ground for their declining the application for the court order. The source claims that the judges who previously did the biddings of the former governor, were wary of acting against president Tinubu’s interest.
As a result, while Nyesom Wike and his allies appear reticent over the impeachment proceeding, they quietly sought an order from federal high courts to vacate the Rivers state high court restraining order; a move that would have amounted to legal bootleg.
“They were disappointed that their favourite federal judges will not grant their wish. He just wanted to create confusion in Rivers state by going to get an order from a federal court. He knows that a federal high court cannot vacate the order of a state high court in cases where the state high court has jurisdiction. And in this case, both the state and the federal high court have what is called concurrent jurisdiction. The truth is that he did not expect what he is seeing; his wings have been cut off”, the source said in part”, the source stated.
