Pro-Wike lawmakers absent at Fubara’s independence thanksgiving

Fubara

Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, on Sunday held a thanksgiving service to mark Nigeria’s 65th Independence anniversary, but the 27 state lawmakers loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, were conspicuously absent.

The service, held at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Garrison, Port Harcourt, had the governor, his associates and a few supporters in attendance. Fubara read a Bible passage but did not deliver a speech, and as of press time, no official statement had been released by his media team.

Fubara and the lawmakers returned to governance on September 18 after being sent on a six-month suspension by President Bola Tinubu on March 18. The President had declared a six-month state of emergency in Rivers State following a protracted feud between Fubara and Wike, his political godfather. Ahead of the end of the six-month emergency rule, the parties said they had reconciled and put the political battle between them.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, who leads the pro-Wike lawmakers, was at a different event on Sunday. He marked his 52nd birthday with a thanksgiving service at the Anglican Church, Eliozu, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, which also coincided with the church’s Annual Youth Harvest.Birthday and Coronation Prayer

Similarly, all 23 local government chairmen, including those elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, were absent from the governor’s event.

An ally of the governor, who pleaded anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter, said the development and recent unfolding events “are not funny,” but insisted he was not worried.

The official admitted he could not explain the absence of the 27 lawmakers and the local government chairmen but said it suggested that “all may not be well.”

He recalled that a similar scenario played out when Governor Fubara’s predecessor, Nyesom Wike, suspended some local government chairmen for failing to attend an important state function.