Some lawmakers at the Rivers State House of Assembly have described recent appointments by Governor Simnalayi Fubara as unconstitutional.
The Assembly at its 100th legislative sitting on Monday, January 29, particularly faulted the appointment of Goodlife Ben as acting chairman of the Local Government Service Commission.
The lawmakers also frowned at the appointment of Ine Briggs as acting Director-General of the Bureau for Public Procurement, and Tonte Davies as acting Administrator of New Cities Development Authority.
During the plenary, the House Majority Leader, Major Jack, was said to have drawn the attention of lawmakers to the state government circular announcing the appointment.
A statement signed by the special adviser, media, to the speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Wachukwu, said that the lawmakers unanimously expressed their displeasure over the appointments.
Citing some sections, members in their various comments accused the governor of breaching the state’s extant laws.
The speaker of the House of Assembly, Martin Chike Amaewhule, condemned the decision of the governor to appoint someone to act as the administrator of the New Cities Development Authority, saying the body unknown to any legislation.
Amaewhule described the appointment of an acting chairman of the Local Government Service Commission, and an acting Director-General of the Bureau for Public Procurement as acts inconsistent with the provisions of the relevant establishment laws of the commission and the bureau.
The speaker wondered if Fubara would deliberately act in violation of extant laws and the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended referring to such acts as misconduct.
All the lawmakers were said to have voted against the governor’s actions and resolved to write to Fubara to draw his attention to the breaches.
They concluded that the governor’s attention should be drawn 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.
