The Rivers State House of Assembly has resolved to stop accepting correspondence from Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
The resolution followed observations by the speaker, Hon. Martins Amaewhule, during the 92nd legislative sitting of the House yesterday in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
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Amaewhule expressed displeasure over the behaviour of the staff of Government House in respect of communications sent from the House to the governor.
He said, “We have resorted to courier services to send messages to the governor. The staff send communication from the governor to us but refuse to take that of the House to the governor.
“At a point, the House will stop receiving communication from Government House. We will forward the resolution of this House on the commissioners’ screening and confirmation to the governor, but if they refuse, we will no longer take communications from the governor.”
This is as the House re-screened and confirmed nine former commissioners, following their renomination by the governor.
Meanwhile, the Assembly has told the nine former commissioners to take ‘a bow and leave’ considering the fact that they had been screened on several occasions by the House.
The former commissioners had in November 2023 resigned from the Fubara-led cabinet following a face-off between the governor and the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.
However, the governor, in a letter addressed to the Speaker of the House and dated December 11, 2023, renominated the nine former commissioners as part of the resolutions reached at a peace meeting presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
During the screening, the House leader, Hon. Major Jack, who had requested that the nominees take a bow and leave, moved that they be confirmed.
All 22 lawmakers who were in attendance during the sitting voted in favour of the motion, and the speaker subsequently directed the Clerk of the House to forward the resolution on the confirmation of the nominees to the governor for further action.