Update: Rivers State Crisis Deepens As Assembly Gets New Speaker Loyal To Gov Fubara [Video]

Lawmakers loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara have elected Hon. Victor Oko Jumbo, representing Bonny Constituency, as the new Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

Naija News reports that Hon. Oko Jumbo, on Wednesday, took the oath of office as the factional Speaker of the Assembly following his election by two lawmakers loyal to the state governor.

Jumbo expressed willingness to work with Governor Fubara, stating that he has directed the Clerk of the Assembly to communicate the emergence of a new leadership of the assembly to the executive.

Oko-Jumbo declared that the actions carried out by the faction led by Martin Amaewhule are null and void.

He observed that since the House’s previous session on December 13, 2023, followed by its adjournment sine die, a significant amount of legislative misconduct has occurred involving 25 former members of the 10th Rivers State House of Assembly, under the leadership of the former Speaker, Amaewhule.

The emergence of a new Speaker has led to the total collapse of the peace deal brokered between the parties by President Bola Tinubu, returning all involved in the impasse to the trenches.

Fubara has refused to recognise the state House of Assembly, led by Hon. Martin Amaewhule, following the decison of the lawmakers loyal to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, to dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He had claimed that the Amaewhule-led Assembly had ceased to exist by law.

Fubara had stated, “Let me say it here, those group of men who claim that they are assembly members, they are not existing. I want it to be on record.

“I accepted that peace accord to give them a soft-landing. That’s the truth. There is nothing in that peace accord that is a constitutional issue. It is a political solution to a problem. I accepted it because these are people that were visiting me and we were together in my house.

“These are people that I have helped… in many ways when I wasn’t even a governor. Yes, we might have our disagreements, but I believe that one day, we could also come together. That was the reason I did it.

“But I think it has gotten to a time when I need to make a statement on this thing, so that they understand that they are not existing. Their existence and whatever they have been doing is because I allowed them to do so. If I don’t recognise them, they are nowhere, that is the truth.”

Watch a video of the factional Speaker addressing newsmen below.