By Gloria Ikibah
The member representing Abua/Odual and Ahoda East Federal Constituency of Rivers State, Rep. Solomon Bob (PDP, Rivers) has said that the spokesperson of the opposition lawmakers in the House, Rep. Ikenga Ugochinyere does not have the legal right to speak for the people of Rivers State.
Rep. Bob who stated this on Wednesday at a media briefing with Journalists in Abuja, accused Ugochinyere of operating outside his legal and legislative boundaries, constantly abandoning his constituency to speak on issues affecting Rivers State and creating problems in the state.
The Rivers lawmaker said though Ugochinyere is a federal lawmaker, it does not confer legality on him to speak on issues affecting Rivers State, adding that only Lawmakers from the state who are aware of the issues can speak for the state.
He accused Ugochinyere of carrying out activities in the House which should not be condoned, alleging that he is being used by a Rivers son to perpetuate the illegality he is carrying out.
According to Bob, rather than concentrate so much attention on the issues in Rivers, “Ugochinyere should pay more attention to developments in Imo state where children cannot go to school on Mondays and traders and workers cannot go about their lawful duties on Mondays”.
He described it as unfortunate that Rep. Ugochinyere who cannot speak on development in Imo state was spending so much energy on Rivers state, saying that the duty of the lawmaker is representation, lawmaking and oversight.
He said “Ugochinyere lacked the capacity to engage in the lawmaking”.
“I’ve not seen him engage in any lobbying activity in the House of Representatives. He’s been here for a year plus now”, he added.
He said further that sections 49 and 72 of the Constitution tells you clearly that no federal constituency or state territories and by implication, you cannot speak for any place other than where you represents.
“I have tried to put these issues before the House leadership, to call them to order. We as a caucus have written to the leadership and to the Speaker particularly, specifically, to take action on this”, he added.
While questioning Ugochinyere’s rise to becoming the chairman of a major committee in the House as a first timer in the House, Bob asked the Speaker to remove him as chairman of a standing Committee of the House.
