EJIKEME OMENAZU Following the escalation of the crisis in Rivers State between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, the governor has said he would institute an investigative panel to look into the governance of the state in the last eight years before he came in. Since he made the announcement, the two camps have been attacking each other, using any available medium. Fubara’s hardline decisions followed the defection of 27 members of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), believed to be supporters of Nyesom Wike, who crossed over to the All Progressives Congress (APC), with an instruction from the state’s APC Caretaker Committee (CTC) Chairman, Chief Tony Okocha, to immediately impeach Governor Fubara.
Seeing the direction the Wike backed APC lawmakers were going, Fubara decided to demonstrate his political strength as the governor of the state. He declared the state House of Assembly, once said to be the best in the country, unconducive for sittings and commenced ‘demolition and repair’ of the complex. The Speaker declared that the 27 lawmakers who defected to APC had lost their seat, while the governor signed an Executive Order, moving the sittings of the lawmakers, now only four, to one of the chambers in the Government House.
With tension rising in the two camps, Wike seems to have grown taciturn after his last public outing during which he apologised to Rivers’ people for ‘helping unappreciative’ Fubara to become their governor, with a pled.