Rivers Assembly begins impeachment proceedings against Fubara

The Rivers State House of Assembly has commenced impeachment proceedings against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Professor Ngozi Odu.

The Majority Leader of the House, Major Jack, during Thursday’s plenary, which was aired live on Channels Television and presided over by the Speaker, Martins Amaewhule, presented the notice of allegations and claims of gross misconduct against Fubara.

According to the House, twenty six lawmakers signed the notice, alleging that the governor violated the Nigerian Constitution.

During the session, the Deputy Majority Leader, Linda Stewart, also read a similar notice of allegations and claims of gross misconduct against Odu.

While speaking, Speaker Amaewhule said the notice would be served on the governor within seven days, in accordance with constitutional provisions, adding that the impeachment process had formally begun.

He said his duty was to transmit the notice as required by law and warned that any attempt by the governor to present the appropriation bill or the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework while investigations were ongoing would not stop the process.

According to the Speaker, the governor had repeatedly failed to present a budget, insisting that if Fubara was willing to do so, he would have acted earlier.

He said, “The particulars of gross misconduct have a lot to do with refusal to present a budget and spending outside the appropriation law.”

“There is a notice, and the process of impeachment is on, and having received it, my job is to forward it, and it is important that we allow this process to go through. The motion says that in the event that the governor tries, as he has always tried to do, to be smart by half, to now say he wants to bring the appropriation bill, or to present the medium-term expenditure framework, the movers of the motion say, ‘Let him hold on and allow the investigation of the allegation brought against him and the deputy governor to be concluded.’

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“In any case, the governor does not want to present any budget, because if he wanted to, he would have brought it all this while. Siminalayi Fubara is a mistake; Rivers State has never had it this bad. In the entirety of Nigeria, Siminalayi Fubara and the deputy governor, Prof. Ngozi Odu, are the only ones in office at the sub-national level that are yet to present the 2026 appropriation bill in the entire country.”

This is coming days after the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, announced Governor Siminalayi Fubara, as the recognised leader of the party in Rivers State following the governor’s decision to dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Tribune Online reports that Yilwatda stated this on Friday night while speaking on Hard Copy, a news and current affairs programme on Channels Television.

According to the APC chairman, the party’s constitution clearly provides that governors of states controlled by the party automatically serve as leaders of the APC in their respective states.

Tribune Online recently reported that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike and the APC National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Basiru, engaged in a war of words over the latter’s condemnation of the remarks by the APC National Vice Chairman (South-South), Victor Giadom, who had referred to Governor Fubara as “the so-called Governor.”