Rivers State House of Assembly has said Governor Siminialayi Fubara’s letter on 2025 budget has not been sighted.

Fubara was accused of frustrating the implementation of the Supreme Court’s judgement especially the aspect requiring him to re-present the 2025 Appropriation Bill to the lawmakers.

In line with the principles of horizontal separation of powers as expressed in Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended.

The Chairman, House Committee on Information and Spokesperson of the House, Dr. Enemi Alabo George, who spoke on Sunday in Port Harcourt, challenged the governor to produce the acknowledged copy of the letter he said he sent to the House.

George said: ” Last week, we were told that on his way to Ogoni for a programme, the governor made a stopover at the gate of the House of Assembly Quarters to grant an interview to the press.

“In that interview, he claimed that he had sent a letter to the House of Assembly indicating his intention to visit and present the appropriation bill, a claim we found rather astonishing as no such letter was received by the House of Assembly.

“His aides later alleged that they forwarded a letter through whatsapp to some members of the House, which was also awkward, unprofessional and embarrassing.

“As I speak, the social media space is awash with stories about a purported letter from the Governor to the House of Assembly expressing his intention to visit the house to present the appropriation bill for the year 2025.

“Nothing can be farther from the truth. We want to state categorically that there is no such letter before the House of Assembly nor any of its staff. We challenge the Governor and his aides to produce an acknowledgement copy of such a letter or any evidence that such a letter was sent or received by the House of Assembly. It is absolutely untrue and unfortunate. The general public must as a matter of importance ignore such claim.

“It is now very obvious that if at all there was such a letter, the intended recipient was not the legislature, but the public, and the clear intention was to play to the gallery, whip up public sentiment, demonize the House of Assembly and set the public against us. This is demeaning, denigrating and perilously unfortunate.”

“It is in responding to the attitude that the supreme court said in its judgement:
‘A government cannot be said to exist without one of the three arms that make up the government of the state under the 1999 constitution. In this case, the executive arm of the government has chosen to collapse the legislature to enable him govern without the legislature as a despot.
As it is, there is no Government in Rivers State’.”

George said the House had hoped that such strong words from the Supreme Court would help “purge the governor of such despotic ways”.

He said as an Assembly, the lawmakers were severely solicitous of progress of the state adding that one man should not be allowed to hold everybody in the state to ransom because of his ego.

George called on everybody to collectively call on the governor to do the right thing in the right and lawful way to allow the state make progress.

He said the Assembly was the worst hit in the ongoing crisis lamenting that the lawmakers had suffered untold hardship insisting that the governor must be stopped from extending such punishment to Rivers people.

George said: “This Assembly has borne the brunt of this crisis. We have endured immense hardship.

We have been battered almost beyond our carrying capacity. We have been punished unduly and unfairly for trying to perform our constitutional duties. Our governor must not extend this punishment to Rivers people. No, please no. We must not allow it.

“We have seen hell:
Our hallowed chamber was burnt down by the governor. The House of Assembly Complex was brought down by the Governor, totally demolished alongside our personal effect and belongings…
Our Speaker’s residence was brutally attacked. Our residential quarters was brutally invaded by the governor

“Our allowances have been seized for about a year and six months. we still continue to suffer. Yet we have resolved to put all of these behind us in the interest of our state, so that our state can move forward. We cannot afford to punish our people because of our ego and personal interests.

“We have our aged pensioners who must receive their pensions. We have our teachers in public schools who we depend on for our children to be educated, they must be paid their salaries. We have government hospitals and health centers which our people depend on for discounted and affordable medical services.

“We have public schools which depend on public funds for their daily running.
The governor is toying with the lives and livelihoods of Rivers people. Let us please all call on him to do the right thing in the interest of our dear state and its people”.

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Kogi Central Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has alleged that Nigerian security operatives are planning to arrest her upon her return to Nigeria.

Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan claimed the move is linked to her participation in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting in New York on 11 March, where she raised concerns about her suspension from the Senate and sexual harassment allegations against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

She disclosed this to PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview on Sunday.

“I’m aware there are plans underway to have me arrested as soon as I arrive Abuja,” Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan, who is still in the US after the IPU meeting, said.

The senator did not, however, say which of the security agencies was plotting her arrest.

PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported that Nigeria’s internal and external intelligence agencies have launched a probe into how she gained access to the meeting without an official nomination.

A high-ranking administration official and two top security officials involved in the inquiry confided in PREMIUM TIMES that the State Security Service (SSS) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) are working to determine how Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan attended the international meeting without approval, who facilitated her trip and accreditation, and whether interest groups orchestrated her participation to embarrass Nigeria, its government and its people.

*The IPU meeting*

On 11 March, Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan attended the IPU meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where she narrated the circumstances surrounding her suspension from the Senate.

She alleged that the suspension was politically motivated to silence her for speaking out against misconduct in the legislative chamber and thereafter sought international intervention.

In response, IPU President ,Tulia Ackson, said the parliamentary body would investigate the matter but would also allow the Nigerian Senate to present its side of the story.

However, a Nigerian delegate to the IPU meeting, Kafilat Ogbara, countered Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan’s claims when she (Ogbara) addressed journalists at the UN secretariat a day after the former ’s attendance at the IPU meeting.

Mrs Ogbara, the chairperson of the House Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development, read a letter from Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, stating that Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension was due to violations of Senate Standing Rules during plenary sessions and not because of her allegations against Mr Akpabio.

*Alleged attempt to remove her from the UN premises*

Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that shortly after her speech at the IPU meeting, the senate president sent three officials led by the Chargé d’affairs of the Nigerian Embassy in New York to forcibly remove her from the United Nations premises during the IPU meeting.

“The Senate President Akpabio sent three staff headed by the Chargè D’Affairs of the Nigerian embassy in New York to evacuate me from the United Nations premises right after my speech. I was rescued by parliamentarians from other countries and the security,” she alleged.

The senate president could not be reached for comment. His spokesperson, Eseme Eyiboh, did not pick up PREMIUM TIMES’ calls to his mobile telephone or respond to a text message.

Similarly, the Senate’s Spokesperson, Yemi Adaramodu, could not be reached as his mobile telephone did not connect..

Premium Times

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

A Lagos-based member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Ushie Uguamaye, could have her service year extended by 30 days with half pay over her criticism of the administration of President Bola Tinubu.

This is according to the NYSC Bye Laws (Revised 2011).

Recently, Uguamaye, known on TikTok as @talktoraye, shared a video in which she called out the Tinubu administration over the economic hardship faced by Nigerians since it was sworn in.

In another TikTok video, the young lady claimed that she was threatened on phone by an official of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for the video criticising the President.

She also shared a screenshot of a message allegedly received from NYSC officials summoning her to report to the Eti-Osa Local Government office on Monday.

According to Uguamaye, she fears for her life because she has also been receiving threats from anonymous persons after her video went viral.

The first video shared by Uguamaye may have contravened the NYSC Bye-Laws (Revised 2011), the section which says corps members are “not be rude to constituted authority” during primary assignments.

It reads: “Any member who is rude to constituted authority shall be tried by the Corps Disciplinary Committee and, if found guilty, be liable to extension of service for a period not less than thirty (30) days with half pay.”

Meanwhile, the Spokesperson for the NYSC, Caroline Embu, was not available to give comment on the corps member’s TikTok video.