BREAKING: Tsunami hits Rivers Executive Council as more Commissioners tender resignation letters
Three more commissioners resigned from Governor Sim Fubara’s cabinet on Thursday, adding to the political tsunami sweeping Rivers State.
The Commissioner for Works, George-Kelly Alabo, who served in the same post under Nyesom Wike’s administration, and his Social Welfare and Rehabilitation counterpart, Inime Aguma, are the most recent to leave the cabinet.
Their resignations came in separate letters to Governor Fubara, just hours after the state’s Attorney-General (AG) and Commissioner for Justice, Prof Zacchaeus Adangor, resigned.
“I hereby resign my appointment as the Commissioner for Works, Rivers State, effective immediately. My decision to resign is anchored on my conscience, personal philosophy, and professional ethics,” Alabo said in the letter addressed to the governor. “This decision was taken after deep introspection. I appreciate Your Excellency for the opportunity to serve my beloved Rivers State as Commissioner for Works.”
On her part, the Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation cited “personal” reasons for her resignation from the cabinet and wished the current administration well.
“I hereby tender my resignation as the Honourable Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Rivers State on this day 14th of December 2023,” she wrote. “I thank Your Excellency for the privilege to serve in the State Executive Council. My decision to resign is personal and based on other pressing commitments. I wish Your Excellency a successful tenure and pray for best wishes in all your endeavours.”
The Finance Commissioner Isaac Kamalu also pulled out of the cabinet on Thursday.
“I hereby inform you of my immediate resignation as Commissioner of Finance, Rivers State with effect from the date stated above,” he said in his letter. “I thank you for the opportunity granted me to serve our dear State under your administration.”
In his resignation earlier in the day, Adangor said the move was based “purely on personal decision”.
More in the news;
The resignation wave that has hit Rivers is the latest twist in the political turmoil that has rocked the oil-rich state since the rupture between FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and Fubara began. The Rivers State House of Assembly has already split into two factions, with the 32-member legislature now divided into two parties.
Earlier this week, 27 members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). However, the leader of another Assembly bloc, Edison Ehie, declared their seats empty in the aftermath of the defection.
Governor Fubara later razed the Assembly facility, claiming it was unsafe after a fire two months previously. He then presented the budget for 2024 to the Ehie-led panel at Government House in Port Harcourt. A court had prevented the Martins Amaewhule-led faction, seen as Wike’s friends, from utilizing the assembly.
The Amaewhule-led faction moved to impeach Governor Fubara about two months ago. However, parliamentarians loyal to Fubara impeached him and appointed Ehie as the new speaker.
While President Bola Tinubu previously intervened in the dispute and met with Wike and Fubara in Abuja, with Fubara declaring that the matter was handled, the new wave of resignations in the South-South State is yet another plot in the standoff.