The political camp of the Rivers state Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, was again pushed into a deeper trench by the decision of the state House of Assembly to probe the alleged age falsification of the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Simeon Amadi.
At its 135th legislative sitting, the House resolved to write to the Department of the State Service, DSS, to investigate the CJ following allegations against him by the Leader of the House, Hon Major Jack.
The House agreed that falsification of age was a “serious offence” but the allegation must be confirmed and doing so, the CJ has to be thoroughly investigated to establish the authenticity of the allegation.
Responding to this development, the Speaker, Rt. Hon Martins Amaewhule said by section 128 of the constitution, the House is empowered to investigate the allegation but quickly accused Governor Fubara of barring heads of ministries, departments and agencies from appearing before the House.
Remember that Justice Amadi was screened to become the Chief Judge of the state about three years when Wike was a governor. Unconfirmed report has it that Amadi, who hails from the same Ikwerre ethnic nationality with Wike, turned down alleged N5 billion gratification and tastefully furnished houses in London and America to ditch the governor and clear the grounds for his eventual impeachment.
Commenting on the CJ’s ordeal, Hon Ogbonna Nwuke, former House of Representatives member in the 7th National Assembly said the action of the Assembly members was just to intimidate the Chief Judge in order to get at the governor.
“The process of impeaching the governor is not easy. That is why they are intimidating the loyalists of the governor just to create a state of emergency, at most”.
Giving the quick succession at which events happened in the state in the course of the week barely few hours after the Minister of the federal capital territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike on Wednesday publicly declared that the state Governor, Siminalayi Fubara could be impeached by the House of Assembly and “heaven will not fall”, it shows that there is more in the offing.
The minister’s audacity came just a day after a crucial meeting between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the delegation of the pan Niger Delta Elders Forum, PANDEF, in Abuja wherein the latter was asked to go back home and prevail on the embattled Governor to “obey the rule of law”, in other words, the Supreme Court judgment.
Meanwhile, Wike’s impeachment threat to Fubara and his vituperations on the Ijaw ethnic nationality has since attracted the ire of the Supreme Egbesu Assembly, SEA, a religious deity of the Ijaws and other revered topnotch organizations such as the Ijaw national Congress, INC and its youth wing, Ijaw Youth Council, IYC.
Recall that in the early years of militancy in the Niger Delta with Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta states being the hotbed of the crisis, the Egbesu god was said to have been invoked to wade off the incursion of the federal troops into the flashpoints of the crisis.
