The Rivers State House of Assembly has frowned at recent appointments approved by Governor Siminalayi Fubara, especially those appointed in an acting capacity.
The appointments include those of Mr. Goodlife Ben as acting chairman of the Local Government Service Commission, Dr. Ine Briggs as acting director-general of Bureau for Public Procurement, and Mr. Tonte Davies as acting administrator of the New Cities Development Authority.
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The House expressed its displeasure during its 100th legislative sitting when the majority leader, Hon. Major Jack, called the attention of the House to a Government Special Announcement in that regard.
Citing sections of relevant laws, members commented on the information and stated that the governor, in the exercise of his powers, has relegated the laws to the background.
Speaking on Fubara’s appointments, the speaker, Hon Martins Amaewhule, said the actions of the governor in appointing someone to act as the administrator of New Cities Development Authority, a body not known to any legislation in the state was condemnable.
Amaewhule stated that the appointment of an acting chairman of the Local Government Service Commission, and an acting director-general of the Bureau for Public Procurement were acts inconsistent with the provisions of the relevant establishment laws of the commission and the bureau.
The speaker wondered why Fubara would deliberately act in violation of extant laws and the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended knowing that such acts constitute misconduct.
The House thereafter voted in the affirmative and resolved to write to draw his attention to Section 44(3) of the Rivers State Local Government Law No. 5 of 2018 and Section 5(1) of the Rivers State Public Procurement Law No. 4 of 2008.
It expressed its displeasure with those questionable appointments, which it viewed as an aberration and a violation of extant laws.