- George said the governor must be reminded that the House of Assembly is not an appendage of the executive and its members are not his slaves, bondservants and serfs.
The Rivers State Assembly has stated that it is the worst hit in the ongoing crisis in the oil-rich State as its members have had to endure tremendous pain and agony.
This is even as the Assembly called on Nigerians to prevail on the governor to do the proper thing in the right and lawful way for the progress of the State.
The Chairman, House Committee on Information and Spokesperson of the House, Dr. Enemi Alabo George, made call on Sunday in Port Harcourt
According to him, the lawmakers had suffered untold hardship insisting that the governor must be stopped from extending such punishment to Rivers people.
George said: “This Assembly has borne the brunt of this crisis. We have endured immense hardship. We have been battered almost beyond our carrying capacity. We have been punished unduly and unfairly for trying to perform our constitutional duties. Our governor must not extend this punishment to Rivers people. No, please no. We must not allow it.
“We have seen hell: Our hallowed chamber was burnt down by the governor. The House of Assembly Complex was brought down by the Governor, totally demolished alongside our personal effect and belongings…
Our Speaker’s residence was brutally attacked. Our residential quarters was brutally invaded by the governor
“Our allowances have been seized for about a year and six months. we still continue to suffer. Yet we have resolved to put all of these behind us in the interest of our state, so that our state can move forward. We cannot afford to punish our people because of our ego and personal interests.
“We have our aged pensioners who must receive their pensions. We have our teachers in public schools who we depend on for our children to be educated, they must be paid their salaries. We have government hospitals and health centers which our people depend on for discounted and affordable medical services.
“We have public schools which depend on public funds for their daily running.
The governor is toying with the lives and livelihoods of Rivers people. Let us please all call on him to do the right thing in the interest of our dear state and its people”.
George said the governor must be reminded that the House of Assembly is not an appendage of the executive and its members are not his slaves, bondservants and serfs.
“We are an independent arm of government in line with the principles of horizontal separation of powers as expressed in Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended.
“It is in responding to the attitude that the supreme court said in its judgement:
‘A government cannot be said to exist without one of the three arms that make up the government of the state under the 1999 constitution. In this case, the executive arm of the government has chosen to collapse the legislature to enable him govern without the legislature as a despot. As it is, there is no Government in Rivers State’.”
George said the House had hoped that such strong words from the Supreme Court would help “purge the governor of such despotic ways”.
He said as an Assembly, the lawmakers were severely solicitous of progress of the state adding that one man should not be allowed to hold everybody in the state to ransom because of his ego.
In his response Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Barrister Joseph Johnson said that the Martins Amaewhule led House of Assembly is fond of denying everything concerning governor.
He regretted that it’s only the Assembly that is yet to receive the letter that is in public domain
Discussion about this post