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Help! They want to stop us from impeaching Fubara – Rivers Assembly
Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, on Sunday cried out about what it claimed was an attempt by some external forces to stop the impeachment proceedings it initiated against Siminalayi Fubara, the state governor.
The lawmakers – 27 in all – who have been at daggers-drawn with Fubara, a development which blew up in the open in October 2023, when they first served impeachment notice to the governor, went the same route on Thursday, last week with a fresh notice after accusing him of running the state without an approved budget, which they said constituted gross misconduct.
But against the backdrop of the heavy dust the move has raised, with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to which the governor and majority of the lawmakers belong, rejecting it, the assembly members, who did not name those involved, pointed to secret plots stop the process through illegal court orders.
Enemi George, spokesman of the group, who said in a statement on Sunday that the supposed orders were to the members from carrying out its constitutional responsibilities, noted that the lawmakers got wind of the plot through intelligence, adding that “certain persons” involved were scheming to obtain such orders from some of the high courts within the state but outside the Port Harcourt judicial division, regardless the dictates of the law.
Pointing to the illegality of the alleged move, George, Chairman, House Committee on Information, Petitions and Complaints, cited section 272(3) of the constitution, providing that “subject to the provisions of section 251 and other provisions of the constitution, the Federal High Court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine the question as to whether the term of office of a member of the house of assembly of a state, governor or deputy governor has ceased or become vacant.”
He also referred to section 188(10) of the constitution, stating that “no proceedings or determination of the panel or of the House of Assembly or any matter relating to such proceedings or determination shall be entertained or questioned in any court.”
The statement added: “These persons are also fully aware of judicial pronouncements on this matter, especially recently at the court of appeal on a matter involving similar ex parte order by a Rivers state high court contrary to section 272(3) of the constitution. A word is enough for the wise.
“Therefore, with the leave of the speaker of the Rivers state house of assembly, I call on those concerned to exercise restraint and refrain from acts inimical to the Constitution and the rule of law.
“All that is required is for the office holders who have already been duly served with the Notice of Allegations of Gross Misconduct to respond to them item by item rather than deploy subterranean moves to subvert the law or use proxies to malign members and the Rivers State House of Assembly in the media.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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