Rivers: Struggling to Stabilise Govt Amid Political Crisis

While other 35 state governments across the country boast of developmental strides and innovations, showcasing achievements in the past two and half years, Rivers State continue to struggle for governance stability amid political crisis. Blessing Ibunge writes.

The battle for supremacy in the soul of Rivers State has set the state back in development.

Governance is presently in a limping situation seeking for quick medication or may be led to uncertainty. The state which used to be a reference point in terms of good governance has become a war zone. The State was near recovery after President Bola Tinubu waved in to settle the dispute between the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, Governor Siminalayi Fubara and 27 members of Rivers State House of Assembly. After weeks of suspended noise from the political gladiators, they are now fighting to finish, not minding the implication of their actions on the development of the State and the people.

Rivers people are yet to know the main reason for the crisis that ensued between the political gladiators shortly after the current government birthed in the state on May 29, 2023. Even if there had been rumours of sharing formula in the allocations of the state funds, the warring parties are yet to come out clean and explain why the state will not experience peace and stability.

Their actions have further exposed cases of selfish interest among the parties. For sometime now, residents of the State were kept in suspense following a renewed threat of impeachment by the lawmakers led by the House Speaker, Hon Martins Amaewhule, and the legal battle seeking to stop the impeachment process against Governor Fubara and his deputy, Prof Ngozi Odu.

On Friday, Justice Florence Fiberesima of the Oyigbo High Court of Rivers State sitting in Port Harcourt, adjourned indefinitely the suit filed by Governor Fubara and his Deputy, Prof Odu challenging the impeachment processes against them by Amaehwule and 26 other members of Rivers State House of Assembly as well as the Clerk of the House. The judge had on January 16, this year, restrained the Speaker and other lawmakers from sending any request, resolution, articles of impeachment or other document or communication to the Chief Judge.

The court also restrained the Chief Judge from receiving, forwarding, considering and or however acting on any request, resolution, articles of impeachment or other document or communication from the lawmakers for purposes of constituting a panel to investigate allegations of misconduct against the governor and his deputy.

Acting on the earlier court order, the Chief Judge of the State, Justice Simeon Amadi declined to constitute impeachment panel to investigate an alleged gross misconduct levelled against the governor and his deputy, as directed by the 27 lawmakers of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

In a letter he signed, dated January 20, 2026, and addressed to the Speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly, Justice Amadi noted that he is a defendant in the suits before a High Court in the State. He explained in his response to the lawmakers that he is restrained by the subsisting High Court order from taking any further action as regards setting up the panel to probe the allegations.

In the letter addressed to the Chief Judge and signed by the Speaker, he accused the governor and his deputy of “Gross Misconduct”. The Assembly members loyal to the FCT Minister reaffirmed their resolve to continue with the impeachment against Governor Fubara and his deputy, stressing that the process remains the most viable constitutional option to resolve the lingering political impasse in the state. But the High Court reacting on the Interim Order of Injunction by the governor barred the Chief Judge from acting on the resolution of the Assembly.

However, in his response letter, the Chief Judge told the Speaker that he was legally restrained from acting on his request due to interim orders issued by the State High Court. He further disclosed that the Speaker had lodged an appeal against the interim orders at the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division, noting that notices of appeal were served on his office on January 19 and 20, 2026.

Referencing the received letter in RS/JUD/CJ/RSHAS/VOL.2/26 by the Speaker, the Chief Judge said “Reference is made to your two letters to my office, both dated 16th January, 2026 and received the same date. To both letters, are attached voluminous documents on the subject-matters to wit: Request for the Chief Judge, my humble self, to appoint seven (7) persons to investigate the allegations of gross misconduct against His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, GSSRS, the Governor of Rivers State, pursuant to Section 188(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended); based on the resolution of the House of Assembly vide Section 188(4) of the Constitution.

“Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law are the bedrock of democracy and all persons and authorities are expected to obey subsisting orders of court of competent jurisdiction, irrespective of perception of its regularity or otherwise. Given the above scenario, our legal jurisprudence enjoins the parties to obey the order of interim injunction until it is set aside or the suit is finally determined. Case laws vindicate this position:

“In the case of Hon. Dele Abiodun Vs. The Hon, Chief Judge Of Kwara State &3 ORS. (2007) 18 NWLR, 109-169 is opposite. In that case, the Chief Judge of Kwara State who proceeded to set up a 5-man panel to investigate the allegations levelled against the Appellant despite a subsisting restraining order of court and pending suit was roundly condemned in strong language and voided the entire proceedings. At page 165, the Court of Appeal in its judgment, descended on the Chief Judge as follows: I liken the scenario created by the Chief Judge to the position of a chief priest and custodian of an oracle turning round to desecrate the oracle. The Chief Judge of the State who is the custodian and head of the judicial arm of the State, ought to abide by the laws of the State, nay the land.

“Speaker, the law envisions a three-pronged restraint virtue of the subsisting interim orders of injunction, the pending motion on notice for interlocutory injunction and pending suits. Furthermore, you have lodged an appeal against the said interim orders at the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division. I was served with the Notices of Appeal on the 19th and 20th instant. Attached herewith, are the said Notices of Appeal. By the doctrine of lis pendens’, parties and the court have to await the outcome of the appeal. In view of the foregoing, my hand is fettered, as there are subsisting interim orders of injunction and appeal against the said orders. I am therefore legally disabled at this point, from exercising my duties under Section 188(5) of the Constitution in the instant”, Justice Amadi added.

Also, at the resumed court sitting on Friday, the lead counsel to Amaewhule and 26 other members, S.I. Ameh (SAN) informed the court about the appeal which he noted has been entered and orally applied to the court to stop further hearing pending the determination of the appeal. It was observed that the oral applications were not opposed by the lead claimants counsel, Paul Erokoro (SAN), and Lawrence Oko-Jaja who is the counsel to 28th to 30th defendants in the court who are Victor Oko-Jumbo, Sokari Goodboy and Orubienimigha Timothy, lawmakers loyal to Governor Fubara.

Ruling on the application, Justice Fiberesima adjourned indefinitely following the proof of two separate appeals which have been entered, a decision which she said will enable the appeal court to determine the suit before it.

The present situation in Rivers State is likened to a pregnant woman who has been in a long painful labour, and fear of losing the baby or her life, yet she is advised to endure the pain and be patient with no immediate solution to end her pains by her consolers.

However, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) in Rivers State, has expressed dismay over the lingering political crisis in the State, calling on church leaders and elders to wade in. Chairman of PFN in the state, Dr Minaibi Dagogo-Jack, while speaking with journalists in Port Harcourt, said the crisis had taken too long and that it was time for church leaders and elders of the state to speak up and rebuke those who deserved to be rebuked.

Dagogo-Jack expressed sadness over the way politics is practiced in the state, insisting that the church which forms a large population of the voting public in Rivers State would no longer sit aside and watch the state burn.

“It’s time for the church and the elders of Rivers State to start talking and rebuke those who are supposed to be rebuked. Enough of what we see in Rivers State where politicians will be chanting, ‘no one man, no Rivers State’. A state that was dedicated to God Almighty being ascribed to one man. Politics is being played in such a way that it has never been played before.

‎”302,000 votes made Siminialayi Fubara in the 2023 election and we have 3.5million registered voters in Rivers State, meaning that the politicians that have been shouting don’t even make up to 10 percent and they are the ones talking. Kogi gave more votes to the president than Rivers State yet they are not making much noise as they are making in Rivers State, “ he stated.

‎Dagogo-Jack vowed that in 2027, PFN won’t allow politicians to make the kind of noise they are making in Rivers State, adding that the church forms a majority of the voting strength in the state which politicians are proud about.

‎”Let me also announce that the over 200,000 votes that they were priding about also forms part of the churches’ vote, and I want to tell you that we shall not allow this to continue again in Rivers State. We shall come out as a church. We had earlier directed our members to go and register to be voters, now we are also mobilising them seriously,” he added.

Speaking on the impeachment threat against Governor Fubara, the PFN leader faulted the assembly for repeating issues that were already settled during the purported agreement reached between the governor, FCT Minister and the Assembly before the declaration of emergency rule in the state. “You started an impeachment proceeding based on certain facts involving the appropriation of money without approval from the assembly and you went to the leader of this country, and you came back and announced that there is peace now.

The same reason for which you wanted to impeach him, the same reason for which you went to Supreme Court and got a verdict, the same reason for which you had a political settlement that led us to a state of emergency, you come back again to give the same reason as impeachable offence. I don’t see, anywhere such happens,” Dagogo-Jack stated.

‎Similarly, a coalition of civil society organisations, media practitioners, concerned citizens, and other stakeholders have observed that the political impasse in Rivers State, driven by alleged ambitions of state capture and resource control, has paralysed governance and plunged the state into unprecedented tension and uncertainty.

In a communique issued at an emergency stakeholders’ meeting on the political situation in the state and signed by Coalition of #EndMutilationOfElectionResults, #EndRiversPoliticalCrisis, #NoToFalsificationOfElectionResults, #RescueRiversState, on behalf of the stakeholders, said the root causes of the crisis include the persistent absence of internal party democracy, the dominance of money politics, the weakening of critical public institutions (the presidency, INEC, security agencies, and the judiciary), and most critically, the systematic falsification and mutilation of election results.

They observed that “the 2023 general elections witnessed unprecedented manipulation of results at national and state levels, entrenching a culture of electoral fraud that has now matured into open conflict among the very beneficiaries of those manipulations. Governance has been effectively suspended in Rivers State as scarce resources; human, financial, and natural, are being diverted to fuel selfish political battles for survival and dominance, while the masses suffer untold hardship”.

The Coalition saying “Enough is Enough is no longer sufficient”, called for a collective action to rescue Rivers State. They condemned all undemocratic actions and inactions by the warring political actors and demanded the immediate restoration of peace, decorum, and constitutional governance in the state.

The Coalition regretted “the role played by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), partisan security agencies, and a politically compromised judiciary in enabling and exacerbating the current crisis through electoral manipulation and selective enforcement of the law”, and called on all Rivers people to reject any form of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ and also rise above factional loyalty to defend the collective interest of the state.

They also demand an immediate and unconditional end to the ongoing political crisis and the cessation of all actions that threaten the peace and stability of the State. “We put all parties on notice that, should the crisis persist, we shall have no choice but to mobilise Rivers people for a series of peaceful but resolute mass actions to rescue our state from further destruction”.

They therefore, called on all Rivers people vis youth, women, traditional rulers, religious leaders, professionals, market women, students, and all patriots, to unite, rise above partisan divisions, and join hands in the urgent task of rescuing the State from what they described as the grip of destructive and mercantile politics.

“It is time to end the falsification and mutilation of election results once and for all. It is time to reclaim our state”, the Coalition added.