The intervention of President Bola Tinubu in the crisis between Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State and FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike has generated ripples with some Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), including a human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, expressing concern that the truce brokered by the president might have breached the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
In an eight-point peace agreement brokered between Governor Simi Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike in Abuja on Monday, the parties had reportedly agreed, among other things, to withdraw all the pending court cases immediately and also drop the impeachment notice on Fubara while the leadership of Martin Amaewhule (a Wike loyalist) and the remuneration for assembly members and staff to be reinstated.
By implication, the return of Amaewhule as speaker of the state house of assembly means the incumbent speaker, Ehie O. Edison, who is loyal to Fubara and had the backing of the court, will step aside.
It was Edison, who declared vacant the seats of 27 lawmakers that defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
At the meeting with President Tinubu, the contending parties also agreed that the names of all commissioners in the Rivers State Executive Council who resigned their appointments because of the political crisis be resubmitted to the House of Assembly for approval.
But despite its state chairman being a signatory to the agreement, the national leadership of the PDP yesterday rejected the truce and insisted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conduct fresh polls for the 27 state assembly seats already declared vacant after the defection of the lawmakers from the party to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
