Rivers Assembly Vetoes Fubara, Move to Extend Council Chairmen’s Tenure

ksmar April 22, 2024 Headlines, News Leave a comment 634 Views


By Godwin Chukwumaechi

The Martins Amaewhule-led Rivers State House of Assembly, backed by 26 other members, on Monday, vetoed the state governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, and enacted the Rivers State Local Government (Amendment) Bill into law.

This veto is the 6th time the House of Assembly has overridden the governor to enact laws since the start of the political crisis in the state.

By this new amendment, the House has empowered itself to extend the tenures of elected council chairmen by six months in the event of an inability of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission to conduct local government elections.

The fate of the local government chairmen, some of whose first term of 3 years expires in June, is on the major bone of contention in the seeming intractable political crisis between the Chief Nyesom Wike camp and that of the governor.

The House of Assembly had on March 13, 2024, passed the Local Government (Amendment) Bill and forwarded it to Governor Fubara for assent, but expectedly he declined it.

Our correspondent learnt that the Assembly sat at about 8:30am, one and half hours earlier than its 10am official resumption time on Monday, with two items on the order paper for the day.

The Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, was reported to have informed the House that the governor had refused to sign the amendment to the Local Government law, saying “Members are already aware that we forwarded the amended bill to the governor for his assent on the 14th day of March and as it stands the governor has chosen to withhold his assent by not getting back to us.

“So we are empowered by the constitution to make progress and where necessary override the governor’s assent”.

The House thereafter deliberated on the development with the member representing Akuku-Toru II, Loolo Opuende, arguing that if the governor had refused to assent to the bill, then they were constrained to override him.

Another lawmaker, Tekena Wellington, from Asari-Toru Constituency 1, however, took a legal approach and quoted from the constitution; noting that “Where the governor withholds assent and the bill is again passed by the House of Assembly by a two-thirds majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the governor shall not be required. Mr Speaker the question is do we have a two-thirds majority, the answer is yes”.

The bill was then voted upon by a show of hands and 22 members vote for the house to veto the governor with none either against or abstaining.

Confirming the passage Hon Amaewhule said, “By this voting, the Rivers State Local Government Amendment law of 2018 is hereby passed for the second time and the assent of the governor is no longer required in line with section 100 subsection 5 of the 1999 Constitution as altered. The clerk will forward this law to the governor, the attorney general, and the chief judge of the state so they can do the needful”.

Section 100(5) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) empowers the House to override the governor, where he withholds his assent.

Also, the House screened and confirmed nominees for the position of chairman and members of the Assembly Service Commission.

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