The Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Edison Ehie, has declared the seats of the 27 lawmakers vacant.
The lawmakers said to be loyal to Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday morning.
Hon. Ehie, who leads a five-member group loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, declared vacant, the seats of all the lawmakers in the Martins Amaewhule-led group.
Ehie and Amaewhule have been embroiled in speakership tussle. But a State High Court on Tuesday pronounced Ehie as the authentic and legally recognized Speaker. It also forbade Amaewhule from parading himself as Speaker of the State House of Assembly.
Ehie and his allies took the decision to declare the seats vacant at an undisclosed venue used for plenary on Wednesday following the demolition of the Assembly Complex by the state government, citing complete structural integrity failure after it was attacked with dynamite and set a blaze recently by unknown persons.
Meanwhile, Governor Fubara has presented an N800bn 2024 budget estimates to the Ehie-led group at the Government House the same moment the demolition of the Assembly Complex was being carried out.
The Rivers State Executive Council had earlier approved the budget tagged the ‘Budget of Renewed Hope, Consolidation and Continuity’.
The crisis in the 32-member Assembly had begun as a result of a rift between Fubara and his predecessor, Wike.
In October, the Assembly under Amaewhule served an impeachment notice on Fubara and removed Ehie as the House leader. However, some members of the Assembly loyal to Fubara immediately impeached Amaewhule and made Ehie the new Speaker.
