House of Rep Declares Legislative Emergency in Rivers State

 

The storm in the Rivers State House of Assembly reverberated nationwide Wednesday as the National Assembly, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), opposition parties and Nigeria Police Force (NPF) all waded into the crisis, played the blame game, with some calling for the removal of the state’s Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Joseph Mbu.

Alarmed at the turn of events in Rivers State, the House of Representatives took proactive action by declaring legislative emergency in the state.

It invoked Section 11(4) of the constitution, which empowers the National Assembly to take over the functions of any state legislature that is unable to perform its constitutional functions due to a breakdown of law and order.

However, the invocation of Section 11(4) of the constitution would only have effect if the Senate concurs with the House on the matter.

But even as the House moved to stem the crisis in the assembly, the Senate could not arrive at a common ground on the issue, as the senators bickered bitterly over the call for the sack of Mbu.

In its reaction to the crisis, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), however, called on the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan, whom it blamed for the political instability in Rivers State.

But in sharp riposte, the presidency and PDP asked ACN to leave the president out of the state crisis and urged the National Assembly to ignore the call for Jonathan’s impeachment.

While deliberating on the issue Wednesday, the House of Representatives declared that the crisis in the state had reached a new dimension that was preventing the state House of Assembly from sitting and performing its constitutional responsibilities.

It also asked the Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, to redeploy Mbu for his alleged complicity in the crisis in the state.

The resolutions followed a motion of urgent public importance on the crisis rocking Rivers State. A total of 18 lawmakers spoke in favour of the motion while two lawmakers kicked against it.

The dissenting voices were those of Hon. Ken Chikere and Hon. Kingsley Chinda, both lawmakers who are from Rivers State were concerned that the declaration of legislative emergency by the House might amount to taking sides on the matter.

Chinda had earlier raised a point of order to halt the entire motion but was shouted down by some of his colleagues.

Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Hon. Albert Sam-Tsokwa (PDP/Taraba), had brought the motion in a bid to draw the attention of the House to Tuesday's fracas that occurred in the Rivers State House of Assembly.

In the lead debate, Sam-Tsokwa disclosed that the state assembly had on previous occasions tried to hold its normal sittings and transact parliamentary business but was unable to do so as a result of the presence of hoodlums in the precincts of the parliament and the inability of the police to provide security for the legitimate authorities of the assembly.

In separate contributions to the debate, some lawmakers condemned what they described as the failure of the NPF, Rivers State Command, to provide security for the state assembly.

They blamed the fracas and eventual disruption of the sitting of the assembly on the police’s complacency and urged the IG to provide security for the Rivers assembly to enable it carry out its constitutional functions.

The sponsor of the motion had initially demanded the constitution of an ad hoc committee to visit the Rivers assembly on a fact-finding mission and report back to the House within seven days.

The prayer was, however, overtaken by the subsequent arguments in favour of a more drastic action.

However, as the House moved the motion on legislative emergency for the Rivers Assembly, the Senate degenerated into a rowdy session Wednesday over the agitation by some senators for Mbu’s sack.

The uproar, which lasted for almost one-and-a-half hours, was the fallout of a closed-door session held by the Senate to deliberate and take a resolution on the fracas in the state assembly where five members attempted to impeach its speaker, Hon, Otelemaba Amachree.

After the closed-door session, the Senate returned to the plenary during which Senator Magnus Abe (Rivers South-east) formally reported the crisis in the state assembly to the Senate.

In reaction, Senate President David Mark, who described the festering crisis in the state as an embarrassment to the entire country, added that the situation was totally unacceptable and condemnable.

After the remark, Mark handed the resolution of the Senate at the closed-door session to the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, asking him to read the Senate’s adoption.

Accordingly, Ndoma-Egba read the resolutions, of which the first four were adopted by the senators through voice votes.

In the resolutions, the Senate condemned in strong terms the crisis in Rivers State, which it said “portends danger for our democracy”.

It also mandated its committee on state and local governments to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the crisis and report back to the upper chamber within one week.

The Senate also resolved that in the interim, all parties to the crisis should maintain the status quo and refrain from acts capable of jeopardising peace in Rivers State, adding that the Senate would uphold the constitution at all times.

But when the Senate leader read the last resolution, which asked the IG to take immediate steps to address the issue of broken relationship between the Rivers State Government and the CP, it was overwhelmingly rejected through a voice vote.

Subsequently, the Senate was thrown into a rowdy session as the noise of dissension from opposing senators rent the atmosphere.

The dissenting senators had wanted the resolution to call for either immediate sack or redeployment of Mbu, as the perception was rife that he had been fuelling the crisis in the state instead of resolving it.

But after 20 minutes, Mark called the chamber to order and appealed to his colleagues to allow the resolution to stand, saying it had been amended to read that the “Senate urges the IG to address the no love lost relationship between the CP and Amaechi”.

Mark contended that calling for the sack or redeployment of the CP would amount to taking sides before an investigation was conducted.

He was also conscious of the fact that the IG does not take orders from the Senate. But dissenting senators reasoned otherwise.

After the appeal, he put the question again hoping that the dissenting senators would change their minds, but the result was too close to call. Nevertheless, Mark ruled in favour of the resolution. But the ruling was contested by Abe who believed that it was not the true reflection of events during the voice vote.

This prompted a voice vote. At the end of the voting, Mark announced the results, saying 50 senators voted “yes,” 47 voted “no,” while three “abstained” and seven were absent.

However, the dissenting senators again contested the result, alleging that it was not the authentic result, which prompted an irritated Mark to advise anyone who was not satisfied with the outcome of the voting to proceed to the tribunal to contest it.

But while the Senate bickered over the resolution on Mbu, the IG at the end of a meeting held Wednesday with Vice-President Namadi Sambo and Minister of Police Affairs, Captain Caleb Olubolade (rtd), said the police would investigate the crisis engulfing the Rivers assembly by sending a team of investigators led by a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of Operations to the state.

Abubakar, who warned that any police officer found wanting in the crisis would be punished, added that he was unaware of claims that the police had supported the thugs who stormed the assembly complex.

On the conduct of Mbu, who the state governor, Chibuike Amaechi, had repeatedly called for his removal, the IG asked: “What conduct? I am not in Port Harcourt and I am investigating.

“I have sent the DIG in charge of operations; he is in Port Harcourt and he will brief me on what is happening and the action taken by police in Rivers State, and necessary action will be taken against anybody who has anything to defend.

“You are free to make allegations but the allegations must be substantiated that he (Mbu) has done something stupid. I have not gotten any written documentation that has accused the Commissioner of Police of one particular offence till today.”

He also denied the allegation that policemen fired teargas into the Government House, Port Harcourt Wednesday, saying: “That is not true; no reasonable Commissioner of Police will go and teargas the Government House; it is not true.” 

In its reaction to the crisis in Rivers State, the ACN called on the National Assembly to immediately commence impeachment proceedings against the president over his alleged role in the ongoing crisis in the state.

The party blamed Jonathan for failing to live up to his oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In a statement issued Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said by his abhorrence of the rule of law and majority rule, the latest indication of which is his unmistakable support for a group of renegade lawmakers who are fomenting trouble in Rivers State, the president had become a clear and present danger to the country's democracy, and must be shown the way out in accordance with the constitution.

Joining ACN in condemning the crisis, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) yesterday described the fracas in the assembly as disgraceful and a desecration of democracy.

Speaking to THISDAY, the National Publicity Secretary of CPC, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, said the party was not impressed with the role of the security agents in the whole saga.

He said CPC believed that the Rivers State crisis was a replay of what happened during the Nigeria Governors' Forum (NGF) election where the minority attempted to unseat the majority.

“The show of shame in Rivers bore all trappings of what happened during the NGF election where a very desperate presidency tried to have its way; a presidency that is bent on using proxies to fight its wars.  What happened was a clear desecration of democracy,” he said.

But the presidency and the ruling PDP took on the ACN immediately and advised the opposition party to leave the president out of the crisis rocking Rivers State, while urging the National Assembly to ignore the call to impeach the president.

According to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, “This position of the ACN is another condemnable, extremist and fundamentally flawed position by the opposition party.

“For the avoidance of doubt and at the risk of repetitiveness, we wish to state categorically that in spite of what the ACN will want the Nigerian people to believe, President Goodluck Jonathan is absolutely unconnected and definitely not involved in the political crisis that seems to have engulfed Rivers State in recent times.

“The president is not, has not, and will never engineer any act that can cause disaffection between Governor Rotimi Amaechi or any other governor and the state legislature or any other institution of government.”

Okupe therefore called on the National Assembly and Nigerians to ignore and disregard the self-serving and unpatriotic call for impeachment of the president by ACN.

Also, the leadership of the PDP condemned in strong terms the statement by ACN.

PDP’s acting National Publicity Secretary, Tony Okeke, in a statement described the ACN’s call as “malicious and the height of political irresponsibility”.

The ruling party accused the opposition of seeking to aggravate the situation in Rivers State for selfish reasons.

The PDP said it was appalling that the ACN always seeks to distort the facts to the extent of trying to link the president to the situation in Rivers State, all in a desperate bid to tarnish his image and bring him to public odium.

The party urged all members of the state assembly and leaders in the state to exercise restraint and maintain decorum. It also called on all its members in the state to remain calm.