RIVERS CRISIS: Wike’s supporters regroup and maintain their stance on Fubara’s removal

There are significant signs that the effort to impeach Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State appears to be ongoing, notwithstanding President Bola Tinubu’s intervention in the dispute between the former and current governor.

According to information obtained by Sunday Tribune, Wike’s supporters were apparently relentless in their efforts to unseat the governor, who was also a close associate of his predecessor, the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.

It was claimed that the minister’s team had reorganised and was gathering the required resources to execute the governor’s impeachment.

According to reports, the soldiers in the camp persuaded a significant pro-Niger Delta organisation that had issued a dire warning about the governor’s impending ouster to change its stance against the plot.

Following the disastrous attempt by some Wike-supporting members of the state House of Assembly to start the impeachment process, the relationship between Wike and Fubara soured.

When suspected arsonists set a portion of the assembly on fire—they have not been identified or brought before the authorities—the personality conflict reached a breaking point.

In addition, Governor Fubara claimed that he was ambushed by gunmen while he was escorting a few of his most senior staff members to the site of the arson to assess the extent of the infrastructure damage.

The public was outraged by all the dramatic turns that the scandal involving Wike and the governor took, and Chief Edwin Clark, the First Republic Minister and leader of the Jaw people, along with other notable individuals, stakeholders, and Niger Delta organisations like the Jaw National Congress (INC), strongly condemned the situation.

As a result, President Tinubu heeded the pleas of worried people and organisations for him to step in and stop what they saw as a threat to the precarious peace in the Niger Delta.

But despite the president’s advice for a ceasefire and truce, word spread that the minister’s camp was allegedly still determined to move forward with the impeachment plot, presumably due to the potential consequences for regional stability and politics.

According to reports, the camp is taking the required steps to enlist the full cooperation of state entities possessing the authority to compel the impeachment.

Eight other politicians who support the conspiracy are allegedly receiving cover from the law enforcement officers, while certain members of the state House of Assembly who are opposed to the impeachment procedure are allegedly denied security.

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A number of Niger Delta stakeholders, including the INC, Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC), and Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), have individually discussed the need for peace to prevail in Rivers in order to prevent the entire region from being thrown into another round of unrest. This is especially true given that Fubara is, in their opinion, the first Riverine to assume the position of governor of Rivers since 1999, when Nigeria resumed civil rule.

Major international oil companies have multibillion naira oil and gas enterprises, among others, in the Niger Delta region in addition to being the source of crude oil, the foundation of the country’s economy.

The Tinubu administration anticipates that the oil industry would contribute N7.69 trillion from oil exports towards the N27.5 trillion projected allocation for 2024.

President Tinubu had said the following during his budget address to the National Assembly:

Following a thorough analysis of both domestic and global oil market movements, we have established a conservative benchmark for oil prices of $77.96 US per barrel and an estimate of 1.78 million barrels of oil produced daily.

Additionally, we have set a 2024 naira to US dollar exchange rate of N750 per dollar. Nevertheless, the area has been fighting crude oil theft for the past 11 years, costing more than N16.25 trillion.

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) stated in its oil and gas report for 2021 alone that the nation lost almost N1.96 trillion as a result of oil theft, sabotage, and adjustments to oil production.

The INC has already issued a warning against the risk of allowing the existing level of peace in the area to collapse into chaos in the wake of the attempt to remove the governor from office, in a statement signed by both of its coordinators. However, the plotters are apparently relentless, as they are allegedly reaching out to persuade the militant group leaders to make concessions.

Following a meeting in Abuja with a few governors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Wike had revealed details about the cold war.

“When you are unable to work, people will start to bring enemies—those who opposed you throughout your fight to keep the person in office.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) cited the minister as saying, “Nobody does that.”

He denied that he was looking to his successor for financial gain, but he did assert that Fubara was attempting to take control of the PDP organisation in Rivers.

Fubara had sounded conciliatory in his statement following the altercations that followed the political crisis when a military mission headed by Chief of Defence Staff Christopher Musa paid him a visit at Government House in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

“I don’t think there is anything wrong with a father and son having a problem; whatever it is, we will definitely resolve the issue,” he stated.

The Jaw Renaissance Force, a coalition of organisations in the Niger Delta, issued a warning this week about taking any actions that may endanger the region’s current peace and security.

The coalition’s coordinator, Wisdom Oniekpar Ikuli, and spokesman, Sir White Kalio, signed a statement urging care from anyone attempting to fan the flames in order to preserve the peace and stability that are currently in place in the Niger Delta.

According to the statement’s signatories, the coalition moved to unite significant regional players in support of an amicable resolution of the conflict between the two leaders for the benefit of all citizens, and they urged those who they believed were determined to undermine the status quo to reconsider.