The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress APC has demanded the resignation of the state governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara for his lack of performance 9 months after being sworn in as governor.
Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the party, Sir Tony Okocha who made the call on Tuesday during a press briefing at the party secretariat in Port Harcourt stated that the governor has demonstrated that he is not worth serving the state at present.
He stated that the Rivers APC had x-rayed the activities of Governor Fubara for the past 9 months viz-a-viz the activities of his government and “we have concluded that it is decrepit, it is clueless, it is visionless, it is directionless and it is rudderless”.
Okocha stated that as the leading opposition party in the state and the voice of the voiceless, the APC was making the call to let the world know what was happening in Rivers State saying that the party was speaking unequivocally, without any iota of bias.
“It behoves us to profoundly and soundly mirror the government of the day and their activities, especially as it relates to the interest of good governance of Rivers State and Rivers people”. As APC Rivers State we are here to condemn in absolute terms the inactivity of government in Rivers State and we can take you on the indices that culminated into this opinion”, he stated.
The Rivers APC Chairman, a strong ally of Nyesom Wike, Minister of FCT and critic of the Fubara administration in the state explained his reason for the call for Fubara’s resignation thus; “When the Governor was sworn on May 29, 2023, he rode on the plank of Consolation and Continuity of the New Rivers Vision, but unfortunately, hardly had 3 months passed after he assumed office than he deviated completely from that vision.
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“Government is a continuum and the reason why so many states thrive is because of continuity in government policies and programmes”, he added, giving an example of Akwa-Ibom state where he explained that though former Governor Akpabio had a grouse with his successor, Udom Emmanuel, the later continued with the programmes of the former, resulting in impressive development of the state.
He said; “What we have in Rivers State is a complete deviation from what was and is a contradiction to the consolidation, continuity and whatever the government of today rode on to come to office. In the history of Rivers State, this is the only time we have had a successful handover, where somebody is handing over to a successor that he produced.
“There should have been some kind of agreement that we will continue from where you stopped. That of course, was the reason for the continuity and consolidation. manthra. Rivers State is not on the track of good governance. What do we have in the state?
He stated that the much-advertised Ring Road project of the Fubara administration is something that was contemplated and conceptualised under former Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s first term in office saying that the government could not implement the project due to the unavailability of funds and other extraneous factors.
He added that former Governor Wike redesigned the project and was the one who did the groundbreaking shortly after Fubara came in as governor.
“There’s nothing else that is unique about this government other than the jamborees, the squandering of Rivers State funds by the governor. Every week, I’m sure some of you are aware that they have made plans for jamborees in the gab of thanksgiving services for the 23 local government areas and 319 wards of the state. What is the essence of the thanksgiving that gulps as much as N150 million per local government area”, Okocha queried.
He went on to accuse the governor of refusing to hold regular State Executive Council SEC meetings nor being in sync with the legislative arm of government saying that the governor was running a one-man government.
He said; “For the governor to refuse to call SEC meetings, it means he is running the state at his whims and caprices. The state has become a one-man state. He’s now a totalitarian, he’s now a despot and he wants us as a party to sit down and watch that?
As APC, we are telling the governor, let him not make it conditional, let him resign for incompetence. Is Rivers State at war? So the opposite of peace is war. It means that the governor is fighting himself. We have given a rundown of his incompetence and cluelessness and all of these should culminate into that the governor should resign. He is not worth to serve Rivers State at this time”.
