A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Austin Okai, has described the impeachment proceedings in Rivers State as an indication that the All Progressives Congress, ADC, has betrayed Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Okai was also of the opinion that some elements in the presidency had scammed Fubara by refusing to intervene in the impeachment process.
He told DAILY POST in an exclusive interview that Fubara “is having problems; APC has betrayed him.
“If the presidency is protecting him as some people were making up to him, by now the whole impeachment process should have died down; now he has gone to a local court for survival, his hope is hanging on the judiciary.
“You know that the presidency can scam somebody, they have scammed him. He cannot even have control of his own House of Assembly members representing the state, a sitting governor who does not have control of his own House of Assembly.”
The former Peoples Democratic Party candidate for the Dekina/Bassa federal constituency said the impeachment saga was aimed at making Fubara spend only one term in office.
He said: “There is a way out. If they don’t impeach him again and he does only one term is that not okay? I was expecting that by now, APC is supposed to have come to a stage of calling the Assembly members to order because as an APC governor, he is the leader of the party.
“Maybe they don’t need him; you will weigh the option, what does he have to offer when compared to what Wike has to offer? It’s a matter of choice at this moment, what does APC want?”
Meanwhile, a Rivers elder statesman, Wenendah Wali, has said it would be difficult to decide if the impeachment move against Fubara will scale through at this point.
Speaking with DAILY POST, Wali said: “You and I know that one plus one is not two in politics in Nigerian politics. So a lot of funny things happen that you can’t explain.
“But in the process of impeachment, it’s a purely constitutional matter and there are stages equally clearly stipulated to arriving at the point of impeachment.
“From the motions and the House of Assembly, to the notice of impeachment to the governor, to the third vote, to the CJ, committee and all of those, so those things actually limit the purvey of ordinary speculations.
“For example, if the assembly has written to the CJ to constitute a committee of seven Nigerians or people with integrity, I’m not in a position to begin to speculate on what their thinking will be, so it’s actually a difficult question to arrive at if they’re going to succeed or not.
“Everything squarely depends on the CJ right now and the panel that he constitutes. If they look at the terms or the grounds for impeachment and see that the governor actually breached those grounds, every member of the committee will vote.
“And the majority vote will determine whether the governor should be impeached or not. Don’t forget that their vote is final. The assembly cannot overrule them.
“But if they say the governor can be impeached, the governor is guilty of the offenses, then they finally return back to the assembly who will now say fine, we vote for his impeachment or can they decide to say, okay, we want him, he shouldn’t do it next time.
“That was what happened to President Trump in the U.S. He was impeached, but not removed from office, so that’s a bit difficult.
“It’s a bit difficult to say whether they are going to succeed or not. Is the assembly determined to remove him? At this point, the answer is yes.
“Have they been able to convince the CJ to consider a committee?
“So until the CJ decides to say, I’m going to institute the committee or not, every other thing will be widely speculated.”
