Caretaker Committee Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Tony Okocha, has said unless Governor Siminalayi Fubara abides by the law, the political crisis in the state will persist.

Mr Okocha said this at a news conference on Friday in Abuja while reacting to the recent court ruling on the state regarding the disbursement of local government allocations.

An Abuja Federal High Court on Wednesday restrained the Central Bank of Nigeria  from further releasing local government allocations from the Federation Account to the state.

Justice Joyce Abdulmalik held in her ruling that the presentation of the 2024 budget by Mr Fubara before a four-member Rivers House of Assembly was an affront to constitutional provisions.

She described Mr Fubara’s receipt and disbursement of monthly allocations since January 2024 as nothing short of a constitutional aberration that must not be allowed.

The judge further held that Mr Fubara’s action in implementing an unlawful budget stood as a gross violation of the 1999 Constitution he swore to protect.

Mr Okocha, in his reaction, said blackmailing President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Myesom Wike.  over the court ruling would not solve the political crisis in the state.

He described Mr Fubara as Mr Wike’s political investment who was a mere civil servant before he was lifted from a state of relative political obscurity to political crescendo by the FCT minister.

Mr Okocha further stated that the governor was brought to politics and limelight by Mr Wike.

“Wike is not, in any way, suffocating Fubara as is being alleged. Blackmailing President Tinubu and Wike psychologically over the recent court ruling will not help the case in Rivers because the law has to be followed. We stand with and by the court, and not with any strongman’s morality. It is not right for anyone to start proclaiming self-righteousness. Wike is innocent in the political crisis in Rivers and should, therefore, not be dragged into it,” Mr Okocha said.

He said the only way to bring peace to the state was for Mr Fubara to follow the law and abide by the court ruling, adding that “the law does not recognise sentiments but facts as presented. Wike brought Fubara to where he is today. He lifted him from obscurity to political crescendo. Nobody is suffocating anybody. The fight in Rivers State is between Fubara and Fubara,” he said.

The APC chairman added that the political crisis would have long ended if Fubara had obeyed Tinubu’s intervention in the first place.

According to him, Mr Fubara has been running the state without an approved budget, which is against the law.

He said it was unfortunate that those playing up unnecessary sentiments and backing the governor failed to see the illegality going on under his administration.

The way out of the political crisis, according to him, is for the governor to obey the law of the land, including the law regarding the state budget.

“We use this opportunity to speak against attempts to disparage innocent persons, namely Nyesom Wike, the FCT minister. In all the cases in court, there are about 32; he is not a party to any of them. If the governor had obeyed Justice Omotoso’s judgement; if he had listened to the counsel of President Tinubu; if he had listened to the Court of Appeal recently, all of these would have disappeared,” Mr Okocha stated.

On the recent attempt by some stakeholders and elders in the Niger Delta zone to reconcile the gladiators in the Rivers State crisis, Mr Okocha said such a move was too late.

He added that there was no point crying over spilt milk and wondering where those elders were when the political crisis started.

“If you ask me, the only other hurdle to escape is the Supreme Court. What are the elders coming to do at this late hour, if they actually would want to come? They are the same people who told the governor that he is a know-all and do-all; they encouraged him to believe that his head was bigger than his pillow. They told him his powers are elastic, and the governor agreed to that,” he said.

Mr Okocha added that most of the elders disappeared into thin air after lining their pockets while the governor was now on the hot seat.

(NAN)