By Chijioke Kingsley
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – The National Coordinator of the South-South Leadership Forum, Sara-Igbe has said that the 27 Rivers State lawmakers are impostors in the eyes of the law.
Sundiata Post reports that the crisis in Rivers politics intensified on Wednesday following the election of a new Speaker by two members of the House of Assembly loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
This is following the move to impeach Governor Fubara by the pro-Wike lawmakers who defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Sara-Igbe said they have no right to impeach Fubara, citing that by the virtue of the law, they are now seen as impostors.
He said this during an interview on Arise TV on Wednesday, insisting that President Tinubu also lacks the right to “overrule a court of competent jurisdiction.”
“The people who call themselves members of the House of Assembly as honourables, are not honourable enough.
“An honorable person is one who stands by his word. In this instance, we have not seen that in them. If you cannot obey laws and you are a lawmaker, who will obey your law.
“We see them as impostors because by virtue of section 109 (F), they are no longer members of the House of Assembly and that is why the elders of Rivers State, including myself, went to court.
“Unfortunately, the chief judge took the case from the Judge that it was assigned to and gave it to the judge of the former governor who did not even listen to us.
“We are saying those 27 lawmakers are no longer members of the House of Assembly, this is before the court and by virtue of the rule of law, if a case is before a court, status quo remains; everyone will wait for the judges to make a decision. I expected the House of Assembly members who are making laws to wait for the judiciary to interpret the law.
“They went ahead to be reeling out laws; laws that they could not do when Wike was the governor, laws they amended to suit Wike’s administration, now they want to change it because they feel Sim is not in the same book with them nor taking orders from their master. We are saying they cannot put legality on illegality.
“Mr. President does not have powers under the democracy, particularly the 1999 constitution, to direct a governor who was elected the same way he was elected. The president does not have power to overrule a court of competent jurisdiction.
“The whole process is illegal; they are no longer members of the House of Assembly; their seats have been declared vacant and a court of competent jurisdiction has accepted that verdict.
“So, I don’t know what they are still waiting for and they did not appeal. They ran to the president and gave him a script to read for them.
“The Rivers people are saying the script is illegal because as far as we are concerned, the Assembly members cannot do anything except they want River State to burn. We are saying the whole eight points of Mr. President is illegal.”
