Clark Rejects Resolutions On Rivers Crisis As PDP Insists 27 Lawmakers Stand Removed

The convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, has rejected the settlement arrived at between Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, who is the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.

Clark, at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, faulted the resolutions which he described as draconian even as he said they are “baffling, appalling and unacceptable.”

The president chaired another round of peace accords on Monday after the political crisis in Rivers State escalated.

In their bid to oust the governor from office, 27 lawmakers loyal to the FCT minister had defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Two immediately reversed their defections and returned to the PDP.

The governor proceeded by presenting the state annual budget to the five lawmakers who were loyal to him after ordering that the state assembly complex be demolished.

In the ensuing crisis, ex-Niger Delta warlord, Asari Dokubo, warned the president against protecting Wike, whom he said was behind the crisis in the state.

To arrest the development, the president summoned the parties to the presidential villa where a number of resolutions were arrived at.

The political gladiators agreed to end the feud while all impeachment proceedings against the governor should be dropped immediately.

In addition, the factional speaker who led the breakaway, Martin Amaewhule, who’s a political godson to Wike should be recognised as a speaker according to one of the terms of the resolutions.

Also, the 25 lawmakers who defected to the APC should be taken back as members of the assembly without returning to the party upon which they were elected.

Expressing his anger, the elder statesman described the eight-point resolution as “undemocratic and dictatorial.”

According to him, the resolution that the 2024 budget which he had presented to the assembly should be represented after the 27 lawmakers have returned is “another unthinkable directive”.

According to Clark, “The eight resolutions reached, are the most unconstitutional, absurd and obnoxious resolutions at settling feuding parties that I have ever witnessed in my life.

“As a matter of fact, some media captured it very well when they described it as directives.

“And for the fact that such a thing was done at the villa, the seat of the Federal Government of Nigeria, is sacrilegious, because any place housing or is a custodian or symbol of authority, ought to be sacred.

“It is obvious that Governor Siminialayi Fubara was ambushed and intimidated into submission.

“President Tinubu should know that with all the powers he possesses, he cannot override the constitution.

“From all that transpired at the meeting, the laws of the land have not been obeyed.

“We will resist such draconic, arbitrary and unconstitutional action by Mr President and his customer, Nyesom Wike.

“We will go to court to challenge this so-called one-sided and oppressive action of Mr. President.”

Similarly, the PDP rejected the resolutions restating its earlier directive that elections must be conducted to fill the 27 vacant positions in the state assembly.

Speaking during a press conference after the PDP emergency National Working Committee meeting on Tuesday, the party’s acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, said there’s no respite for the lawmakers who by Section 109 (1)(g) of the Constitution vacated their seats.

He said, going by Section 109(1)(g) which states that, “A member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if: being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected: “Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored, or (h) the Speaker of the House of Assembly receives a certificate under the hand of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission stating that the provisions of section 110 of this Constitution have been complied with in respect of the recall of the member.”

Damagum insisted that “Having vacated their seats, the only option available for the former lawmakers, if they wish to return to the House of Assembly, is to seek fresh nomination and re-election on the platform of any political party of their choice in line with the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022.”

He stressed that “The former Rivers lawmakers freely and without any cause vacated their seats, being fully aware of the consequences of defection from the party upon which they were elected into the Rivers State House of Assembly without the conditions stipulated by the 1999 Constitution.

“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no division in the PDP at the national or any other level for that matter to justify the defection of the 25 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from the party.

“They therefore vacated their seats for reasons best known to them and cannot return to the House of Assembly without passing through a fresh electoral process in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act, 2022.

“Moreover, the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Ehie Edison, officially declared the seats of the defected (now) former members vacant in line with Section 109 (1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution.

“The Rivers State House of Assembly, having become functus officio on the matter cannot re-admit the former lawmakers unless through the channel of a fresh election.

“Our party, therefore, counsels the former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly not to be deceived by anybody giving them the false hope and impracticable assurances in Abuja that they can return to the Rivers State House of Assembly without a fresh election or that the Independent National Electoral Commission can be stopped from conducting fresh election into the 25 Rivers State Constituencies where vacancies have occurred because of their defection.”

He noted that going by Section 84 (15) of the Electoral Act, 2022, no courts have powers to stop INEC from conducting elections wherever and whenever a vacancy occurs in any electoral constituency, he urged the electoral umpire to follow Section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Section 84 (15) of the Electoral Act, 2022, to fix a date for fresh election into the 25 State Constituencies the state.