Withdraw Your ‘Illegal’ Appointments, Rivers Assembly Tells Fubara

The Rivers State House of Assembly has called on Governor Siminalayi Fubara to withdraw his appointments into three government parastatals.

The House made this call in a letter to the governor on Monday. The letter was signed by the Speaker, Martin Amaewhule.

The House said the appointment of Goodlife Ben as the Acting Chairman of the Rivers State Local Government Service Commission contravened Section 44(3) of the Rivers State Local Government Law No. 5 of 2018 which stipulated that “the Governor shall appoint the Chairman and Members of the Commission subject to the confirmation by a resolution of the House of Assembly”.

“This law does not grant the Governor any power to appoint anyone howsoever as Chairman or Member of the Commission even on an acting capacity,” the letter partly read.

The House also said the appointment of Ine Briggs as the Acting Director-General of the Bureau for Public Procurement contravened Sections 5(1) of the Rivers State Public Procurement Law No. 4 of 2008 which said “there shall be for the Bureau, a Director-General who shall be appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Board after competitive selections”.

The Board is yet to be reconstituted in line with Section 4(a) which states that “the Chairman and Members shall be appointed by the Governor for a term of four years subject to the confirmation of the Rivers State House of Assembly” so, there could not have been a recommendation when there is no Board to warrant the invocation of the powers of the Governor in Section 5(1) of the law”.

Also, the House said the appointment of “Tonte Davies as Acting Administrator of a non- existent New Cities Development Authority (NCDA) is not backed by any legislation and the Governor cannot on his own or by executive fiat create this Authority without a legislation from the Rivers State House of Assembly”.

According to the House, the appointments are in violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and other extant laws.

“We call on you to withdraw these appointments without further delay and please accept the assurances of our warm regards,” the letter concluded.