The member representing Bonny Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Victor Oko-Jumbo, has emerged as the new Speaker of the House, loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, in a move that is sure to deepen the political crisis engulfing the state.
Oko-Jumbo was sworn in on Wednesday, May 8, a day after the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) caretaker chairman in Rivers state, Tony Okocha, made a directive to the 27 Assembly members to impeach Governor Fubara.
Oko-Jumbo takes over from the former factional Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Eddison Ehie, who resigned as both Speaker and member of the House on December 31, 2023 and was later appointed as Chief of Staff to Governor Fubara.
Oko-Jumbo, a Bonny-born politician, is a staunch supporter of the state governor.
The emergence of the factional Speaker of the State House of Assembly came barely 48 hours after Fubara declared that the majority 27 members of the House, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), as non-existent.
"Let me say it here, those group of men who claim that they are Assembly members, they are not existing. I want it to be on record" Fubara told a delegation of Bayelsa State political and traditional leaders who visited him at Government House, Port Harcourt, on Monday.
"I accepted that peace accord to give them a floating (soft-landing). That's the truth. There is nothing in that peace accord that is a constitutional issue. It is a political solution to a problem. I accepted it because these are people that were visiting me and we were together in my house.
"These are people that I have helped in many ways when I wasn't even a Governor. Yes, we might have our disagreements, but I believe that one day, we could also come together. That was the reason I did it.
"But I think it has gotten to a time when I need to make a statement on this thing, so that they understand that they are not existing. Their existence and whatever they have been doing is because I allowed them to do so. If I don't recognize them, they are nowhere, that is the truth."
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