Rivers crisis: Pro-Wike lawmakers reject 2024 budget

Rivers crisis: Pro-Wike lawmakers reject 2024 budget

The Martins Amaehwule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly has rejected the passage of the 2024 budget by the four members of the assembly led by Edison Ehie.

Recall that the four-man House of Assembly last week approved the N800 billion 2024 budget barely 24 hours after it was presented by Governor Similanayi Fubara.

However, speaking at the dedication service and stakeholders meeting of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Port Harcourt on Sunday, Amaehwule, who is loyal to former Governor Nyesom Wike, accused Fubara of supervising the demolition of the State House of Assembly complex without notification.

“As we speak, the governor has gone to demolish the state House of Assembly, an edifice built with taxpayer money. He personally supervised the demolition, not minding that documents and archives belonging to members and staff of the Assembly were inside.

“The governor’s action is against the law. We hear that some four persons gathered and are meeting somewhere. We don’t know what they are doing. Rivers people should know today that the House of Assembly of any state is defined by the Constitution; to reconvene the House, you need to have a quorum, and the quorum is 11.

“We are 27, and they are just four. They are just doing a family meeting. Anything they told you they had done, ignore them; it’s null and void. The law is clear about it,” he stated.