Rivers Assembly Reverses Move To Declare Pro-Fubara Lawmakers’ Seat Vacant
The Rivers State House of Assembly has reversed an earlier move to declare vacant, the seats of three lawmakers loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara. LEADERSHIP observed that the reversal is a new development in the…
The political crisis in Rivers State has centred on a protracted power struggle between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor-turned-minister, Nyesom Wike, whose loyalists dominate the state House of Assembly. The standoff, which has seen defections, impeachment threats, a state of emergency, and the suspension of lawmakers aligned with the governor, has repeatedly disrupted governance in the oil-rich state and drawn the intervention of federal authorities seeking to broker peace between the two camps.
The lawmakers at the centre of this latest development — representing Opobo/Nkoro, Bonny, and Ahoada West — had their seats declared vacant by the Assembly before the chamber reversed course, with newsrooms citing renewed reconciliation efforts involving Fubara and Wike. Accounts differ slightly on the sequence: some reports describe the reversal as a recall following an appeal by the affected lawmakers over a missed vote on their suspension, while others tie it directly to the broader peace deal. As Premium Times notes, previous truces between the two factions have broken down before, leaving open whether this latest rapprochement will hold or whether questions over political control of the Assembly resurface.