October 16, 2024
The Martin Amaewhule led pro Wike faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly, at Tuesday’s declared the seats of the now Chief of Staff to the State Government, Edison Ehie and other Pro-Fubara Assembly members seats vacant, citing their prolonged absence from legislative seating without notification.
According to a statement by Martins Wachukwu, Special Assistant on Media to the speaker, the Assembly during its plenary, Tuesday said the decision was made in compliance with Sections 109 (1)(e), (f), and 109 (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
The affected members include Edison Ehie (Ahoada East II), Victor Oko Jombo (Bonny), Adolphus Oruibienimigha (Opobo/Nkoro), and Sokari Sokari (Ahoada West).
The motion to declare their seats vacant was moved by Major Jack and co-sponsored by 25 other members.
The move comes on the heels of controversy surrounding Governor Fubara’s 2024 Appropriation Bill.
The governor had presented the N800 billion budget to only four out of 31 members of the Assembly, despite presidential intervention that urged Fubara to represent the budget to Amaewhule’s led Assembly.
However, at the resumed sitting, Major Jack and co-sponsored by 25 other members, moved that the seats of the four members be declared vacant for their continued refusal or failure to attend and participate in legislative meetings of the House, without just cause for a period amounting in aggregate, to more than one-third of the total number of days the House met in the first session of the 10th Assembly and for also being absent in the past 56 legislative sittings of the second session.
Debating the motion, members spoke in unison in support of the motion, and sympathized with the constituents of those constituencies whose voices have been drowned in the House for about one year because of the abdication of legislative duties by their representatives.
In a swift reaction, the Victor Oko-Jumbo led pro-Fubara led Rivers State House of Assembly restated its resolve that the Legislative seats of former Speaker, Martin Chike Amaewhule and 24 others remain vacant following their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), and must be filled through a bye-election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In a statement signed by its Speaker, Victor Oko-Jumbo, on Tuesday, explained that the 25 Legislative seats were declared vacant on December 13, 2024, by the then legitimately recognised Speaker, Edison Ehie, and regretted that INEC has been foot-dragging on the conduct of bye-election to fill the vacant seats.
According to statement, the inability of INEC to do the needful since December 13, 2023, has created room for unnecessary distractions from Amaewhule and his committee of friends, and called on INEC to discharge its constitutional responsibilities to the people of the State.
The Speaker said, “Please, recall that on the 11th day of December, 2023, Martin Amaewhule and 24 others defected from the Peoples Democratic Party that sponsored their election into the Rivers State House of Assembly, to the All Progressives Congress. Their defection was headline news and widely reported in print and electronic media.“On the 13th day of December, 2023, the defection by Martin Chike Amaewhule and 26 others was further cemented in an affidavit deposed to by Martin Chike Amaewhule, when in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1681/2023, Martin Chike Amaewhule & 26 Ors v. INEC & 5 Ors. in paragraphs 15 thereof, he deposed as follows: ‘That faced with the state of uncertainty and confusion in the 2nd defendant Peoples Democratic Party caused by division in the political party, the Plaintiffs were forced by the state of affairs within the 2nd defendant to defect and join the All Progressives Congress APC.’
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“On the 13th day of December, 2023, Rt. Honourable Edison Ogerenye Ehie, as then Speaker, declared the seats of Martin Chike Amaewhule and 24 others in the Rivers State House of Assembly vacant, and called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to conduct bye-election to fill their vacant legislative seats. This has not been challenged and set aside by any court of law.
“Subsequently, I was elected as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly. Myself and the Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have been piloting the affairs of the Rivers State House of Assembly, including passing resolutions and screening various eminent persons as commissioner-nominees and recommending them to His Excellency, the Governor of Rivers State to be appointed and sworn-in as Commissioners, among others.
“Truth and facts are constant, sacrosanct and indelible. The fact of the defection by Martin Chike Amaewhule and 24 Ors cannot be erased by pretenders like Martin Chike Amaewhule and his committee of friends.
“Today, the 15th day of October, 2024, Martin Chike Amaewhule & 24 others who ceased to be members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, on December 11, 2023, purportedly declared vacant the legislative seats of Rt. Honourable Victor Oko-Jumbo and others as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. They have no such powers. This is an exercise in futility. It is a joke taken too far.
“As the Rt. Honourable Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, I call on INEC to immediately conduct bye-election to fill the legislative seats declared vacant on December 13, 2023. I also call on Nigerians and the good people of Rivers State in particular, to ignore the vituperations and ranting of Martin Chike Amaewhule and his committee of friends”. He added.