A group of federal lawmakers known as G-60 has declared that the individuals claiming to be members of the Rivers State House of Assembly lack the legitimacy to amend the State Public Procurement law.
According to the G-60, this is because the Rivers State House of Assembly ceased to exist since December 2023.
The G-60 criticized the actions of the group of 27 individuals who attempted to override the powers of Governor Siminalayi Fubara by passing the Rivers State Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill 2024. They referred to this move as “legislative madness taken too far by some clowns.”
In a statement signed by the spokesperson of G-60, Hon. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, who is also the member representing Ideato North South Federal Constituency of Imo State in the House of Representatives, the group condemned the veto as “an unenforceable legislative rascality.”
The G-60 emphasized that these “Abuja-based lawmakers,” who operate from a two-room self-contained apartment in Emohua and Abuja, are only able to operate freely due to the mercy of Governor Fubara, in compliance with the peace accord orchestrated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Ugochinyere stated: “These clowns, as far as we are concerned, are still moving about freely parading themselves because of Governor Fubara’s mercy and largely in obedience to the peace accord brokered by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to end the political crisis in the state. However, while the Governor has stuck to the accord, his predecessor and Federal Capital Territory Minister, Chief Nyesom Wike, has not, considering what his loyalists are doing.”
He further commented on the alleged veto of the Rivers procurement law, calling it “an unenforceable legislative madness by impostors who are scared of the impact of Fubara’s infrastructure revolution.”
“If not, how can people worth calling lawmakers even think that a mobilization fee of not more than 20 per cent of any contract sum is enough for suppliers or contractors to move to the site or provide goods and services in the present economic quagmire masterminded by their allies in the federal government?” Ugochinyere questioned.
He pointed out that these individuals, who sit in hotel rooms in Abuja or wherever their paymasters take them, have lost their status as lawmakers since they left the party, the PDP, which was the platform that brought them to power, and joined the APC.
“This action violated Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended),” he explained. “To this end, these persons are not lawmakers, and the Independent National Electoral Commission should rise to the occasion and conduct an election to fill those vacant seats, saving Rivers from this continuous illegality and Nigeria from the embarrassment that non-existing lawmakers are causing too often.”
The G-60 reiterated that the so-called veto would not be enforced, describing it as “madness taken too far by clowns whose existence under the banner they claim is made possible by the mercy of Governor Fubara, who chooses to respect the President and promote peace, which, to him, is essential for the development he is committed to bringing to Rivers State.”
