Rivers’ crisis: Fubara can’t unilaterally change House of Assembly venue – Falana

• Falana faulted Fubara’s move, saying the legislature is not an extension of the executive but an independent arm of the government.

A human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has said Governor Simi Fubara of Rivers State can’t arrogate the power and functions of the legislature to himself.

Falana said this in reaction to the executive order by Fubara relocating the sitting of the house of assembly to the government house.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Falana faulted Fubara’s move, saying the legislature is not an extension of the executive but an independent arm of the government.

He explaining that since both arms of government are independent of each other, Fubara cannot change the sitting venue of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

“I would like to assume that the governor issued that executive order before the intervention of the High Court in Rivers State,” Falana said on the show.

“The house is independent of the executive. So the governor cannot tell the house where to sit.”

Fubara had on Friday issued an executive order for the immediate and temporary relocation of the sitting of the Rivers State Assembly to the Auditorium, Admin Block of the Government House, Port Harcourt.

In an official Gazette, Executive Order of the Rivers State Government 001-2023, Fubara cited the unsafe state of the House of Assembly complex.

But Falana insisted that Fubara was wrong to move the sitting venue of the Rivers State House of Assembly, and referenced an impeachment of a governor done outside the premises of the House of Assembly which was nullified by the Supreme Court.

“This was very clear in the Oyo State case which led to the impeachment of Governor Ladoja whereby under the influence of the late Chief Lamidi Adedibu, the House was alleged to have sat in a hotel and the Supreme Court made that point abundantly clear that an impeachment carried out in a hotel deviates clearly from the Constitution,” the human rights lawyer said.

“So any sitting of the House outside the premise of the House of Assembly complex will not be known to law; will not be recognized by law.”

He said if there is a need for a sitting elsewhere, the members of the House of Assembly, properly constituted, will have to decide where to carry out their meeting.

“There is a separation of powers under the Constitution and each organ of the government must recognise its own powers and limitations,” he said