Babatunji Wusu –
Anabs Sara-Igbe, the National Coordinator of the South-South Leadership Forum, has stated that President Bola Tinubu does not have the constitutional authority to manage Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
He mentioned this in an interview with Arise TV on Wednesday.
Sara-Igbe contended that President Tinubu likewise lacks the authority to overturn a court of competent jurisdiction.
Speaking further, the politician stated that the 27 Rivers State legislators have no authority to impeach Fubara.
He maintained that legislators are impostors in the sight of the law.
The Rivers political crisis erupted on Wednesday after two House of Assembly members loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara elected a new Speaker.
This comes after pro-Wike members defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and vowed to impeach Governor Fubara.
Speaking on the development, Sara-Igbe said, “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.”
