Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has stated that he has forgiven Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara. He revealed that they recently spoke on the telephone, signalling reconciliation after months of political turmoil in the State.
“I can’t speak with a man I’ve not forgiven,” Wike said on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ on Thursday night.
“As of yesterday (Wednesday), I spoke with the governor. It doesn’t matter who called, but what is important is that we spoke, and he told me he was leaving the next morning. I told him I was leaving to come back that night. So I can tell you peace has come, and see what the assembly did to set the tone today.”
Wike commended President Bola Tinubu for lifting the state of emergency earlier imposed on Rivers, describing the move as a courageous intervention that restored calm.
“I must commend Mr President for lifting the emergency rule in Rivers, so many people, so many people became constitutional experts, senior advocates and analysts because of the so-called emergency rule. I believe so many of the Rivers people are happy because of what Mr President has done. And what did he do? What was the basis of declaring the state of emergency?” Wike asked.
The former Rivers State governor explained that the initial decision to declare emergency rule was tied to constitutional issues highlighted by the Supreme Court.
“The basis was that one, the Supreme Court said there was no governance in Rivers because at that time it was only one arm of government that was functioning, being the executive, as if it was functioning. The legislature was not in existence. At the local government level, the Supreme Court set aside a purported election that was held that was not in consonance with the law. And remember that before now, the supreme court said, ‘look, you cannot have a caretaker committee in the local governments because Section 7 of the Constitution, as amended, guarantees the existence of the local government and therefore if there’s no local government, you cannot derive from the Federation Account’,” he stated.
