A former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark has faulted the recent truce brokered by President Bola Tinubu on the raging political crisis in Rivers State.
Clark who expressed displeasure at the roles being played by Tinubu and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike in the crisis, described the outcome of the reconciliatory meeting as absurd, obnoxious, and unconstitutional.
Addressing an emergency news conference in Abuja, Clark said the eight-point resolution was more or less presidential directives aimed at legitimising godfatherism and the oppressive will of one individual on the people of Rivers State.
He took exception to aspects of the resolution which stated that the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) should return to the Assembly and that Governor Fubara should re-present the already signed 2024 Budget to them for scrutiny.
He also faulted the directive that the names of 10 Commissioners who recently resigned from the Rivers State Executive Council be re-submitted for screening and reappointment.
Clark observed that in reaching those decisions, Tinubu who presided over the meeting failed to realise that such directives would be against the spirit and letters of the Constitution especially when the courts had ruled on some of them.
“A Court of competent jurisdiction has pronounced Edison Ehie as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly. That Ruling has not been vacated, and based on that he exercised the duties conferred on him by Section 109 (2) of the Constitution.
“When the 27 or so members openly defected to APC from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), waving the flags of their new party and singing President Tinubu’s campaign songs, they automatically lost their seats.
“As of today and going by the Constitution, the Rivers State House of Assembly has four members who are recognised by the laws of the land Therefore, on what premise is Mr President saying that the 27 decamped members should go back to the House? Under what political party, is the PDP or the APC?
“The directives of Mr. President are absurd and cannot hold water. President Tinubu’s actions and directives, he has overruled the Constitution of the country; he has shaken the foundation of the country’s democracy. People lost their lives fighting for democracy in this country.
“Today, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made of no effect the blood of the freedom fighters shed to salvage this country. He has thrown the country’s democracy fifty years backward; this is unacceptable.
“Rather than building a strong system and society, we are building strong, invidious characters, with our national patrimony through corruption and avarice.
“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. President Tinubu simply sat over a meeting where the Constitution, which is the fulcrum of his office as President and which he swore to uphold and abide by, was truncated and desecrated,” he said.
Clark described the resolution that the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, should meet wherever they want to meet as ridiculous and unconstitutional and warned that the Ijaw people in Rivers State will resist such draconic, arbitrary, and unconstitutional directive.
He also did not spare Fubara from the knocks as he accused him of showing feebleness of character and naivety in his actions. By agreeing and appending his signature on a document containing such absurdities, Clark said, the governor has betrayed the people who elected him into office, those who stood behind him in this cause and have signed his death warrant.
According to the elder statesman, Governor Siminialayi Fubara must have been ambushed and intimidated into submission for him to have signed the said resolution.
Clark vowed that as the leader of the Ijaw nation, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), he would mobilise his people to resist any attempt by Tinubu. and Wike to intimidate Governor Siminalayi Fibara of Rivers State and make him a stooge of the powers at the centre.
“We will go to court to challenge this so-called one-sided and oppressive action of Mr. President. We are prepared to face any consequences that may result in the political crisis in Rivers State.
“We will resist any attempt subtle, subterranean, covert, overt, to make an elected Ijaw son, Siminialayi Fubara, the Governor of Rivers State, a servant, a stooge to Nyesome Wike.
“___-,(“As I said, we will go to court to resist this oppressive action using all available constitutional and legal means,” he said.
