The Governor Fubara’s recent remarks about President Tinubu’s intervention in the crisis in the state also drew the anger of the party.
The governor’s statement over the weekend before former military Governor of the State, HRM Alfred Diete Spiff, in which he said that the House of Assembly does not exist in the state, has prompted the party’s decision.
He also told the delegation that everything in the truce brokered by President Bola Tinubu was political and not constitutional.
But Okocha, who was described by the state’s Information and Communication Commissioner Joseph Johnson, as lacking the locus standi to direct the governor’s impeachment, said the APC in the state would not fold its hands and watch Fubara “insult Mr President.”
Accusing the governor of not being a respecter of the rule, running the state with impunity and ridiculing Rivers State, Okocha said he(Fubara) was now a man whose ‘’head has become bigger than his pillow.’’
He said: “The President is the leader of our own party. It will amount to stupidity on our party to sit down and see somebody who weighs less than Mr President insult him(Tinubu) under our very nose.
“It is also absurd to see the governor begin to intimidate people who are members of our political party and we stand akimbo doing nothing.
“We are here to respond vehemently and soundly to them. And as chairman of APC Rivers State, and as representative of Mr. President, we will not sit down here and see the governor insult Mr. President, we won’t sit down here and see the governor declare on his own as if he is a court, the seats of the Assembly members vacant.
“On Monday, the governor said there was no issues in the state. He was heard threatening fire and brimstone. In fact, he rewrote the 1999 Constitution when he said that the House of Assembly of Rivers State does not exist and that for it to even exist, it must be on his whims and caprices; that whatever they are doing is because he allowed them. That means that he has rewritten the country’s Constitution and removed the Legislature. He is now running two arms of government in the state– the Executive and Judiciary.
“This is completely absurd in whichever way you look at it. This is nothing but the tendencies of a despot, a dictator and totalitarian leader.
“To that extent, in consultation with my party, we have redirected and we’re directing the APC members who are members of the Assembly to immediately commence the impeachment of Governor Siminialayi Fubara.
“We have directed members of Rivers State House of Assembly to begin a process of impeachment of a comatose government; a government that does not respect the rule of law. His head has become bigger than his pillow, we will no longer tolerate it.
“He no longer respects the rule of law; he does anything he cares to do, that is impunity and we will not sit down here to see Rivers State become a laughing stock in the comity of nations. This is unacceptable.”
But, Information Commissioner Johnson said Okocha’s directive to the lawmakers was a jamboree.
He said Okocha was only raising a smokescreen, he claimed that the governor never said that the state had no House of Assembly.
According to him : “Tony Okocha by definition is an acting caretaker chairman and you know once there exists a caretaker, it means there is a substantive chairman of APC in the name of Chief Emeka Beke.
“That matter is before the jury and on the issue of whether he has the power to direct, the answer is no.
“Section 109(1g) of the 1999 Constitution which is our ground norm has already eliminated the existence of those young men who crossed from the major political party(PDP) to another party. APC as a matter of fact does not have leadership. They have a leadership that is Tony Okocha on one hand, in contention with Chief Emeka Beke on the other hand, so whose report shall we follow?
“So, the governor was right to say that by our own law, the 1999 Constitution says that once an Assembly member that has moves from his own political party that brought him to power, once he defects he losses. No court on our land can change it, once the Constitution states a thing it becomes law.
“What Tony Okocha is raising is a smokescreen. He is standing on one leg. He does not have the locus standi to direct. And let me assure you, Rivers people will resist it to the last point.”
