By Ayo Kehinde
Amid the ongoing demolition of the Rivers State House of Assembly Complex following the political crisis in Rivers State, Governor Siminalaye Fubara on Wednesday, presented his budget estimate of N800 bn to the Edison Ehie- led House of Assembly members inside Government House, Port Harcourt, the state capital.
The Court had earlier recognized the Ehie as Speaker of the House of Assembly before the bulldozers set to work in the early hours of Wednesday.
The Ehie group, now operating from a chamber inside Government House, received the budget presentation in a hall at the Government House due to what Ehie told journalists as ongoing “renovation work at the state assembly complex,” which was earlier gutted by fire shortly after the supremacy battled between the governor and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike blew into the open. Wike is Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Abuja.
Tagged as the ‘Budget of Renewed Hope, Consolidation and Continuity’, the Rivers State Executive Council had earlier approved the budget estimates
The demolition of the Assembly is coming on the heels of the defection of 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday, prompting the governor to summon an emergency meeting of the state exco.
The political crisis in the 32-member Assembly is still ongoing as both parties have ignored intervention by President Bola Tinub, calls for restraint by the Ijaw Youth Congress, Elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark and the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
The demolition of the Assembly is said to be a move to prevent further attempts to impeach either of the factional Speakers until the Court recognized Ehie, and possibly the governor at some point on time, by the 27- defected members.
Meanwhile, the PDP and Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, CNPP have condemned the defection and called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to get ready to conduct a bye-election for the seats of the defectors, citing relevant judicial precedence.
The defectors however claim that the crisis in the party following the tussle over the contest to fill the vacant office of National Secretary of the party has polarized the party, prompting their defection.
