The Spokesperson of Group of 60 Federal Lawmakers in the National Assembly (G60), Hon. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, has said that a non-existent 27-member Rivers State House of Assembly cannot amend the State’s procurement law in their bid to stop infrastructure development in the state.
Ugochinyere, who represents Ideato North/South federal constituency of Imo State in the House of Representatives, said this in reaction to the purported overriding of the assent of Governor Siminialayi Fubara to enact the Rivers State Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill 2024 into law on Monday, the State Assembly.
The G-60 Spokesperson insisted that the 27 persons under the leadership of one Martins Amaewhule parading themselves as lawmakers had their seats already declared vacant since December when they defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in contravention of the nation’s Constitution.
Ugochinyere, in a statement on Tuesday, emphasised that: “Section 109 (1) of the 1999 Constitution provides that ‘a member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if … (g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political Party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected.
“Consequently, Amaewhule and his co-travellers are no longer Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, hence all their actions are but the highest level of illegality, null and void in a democratic entity governed by the Constitution which prohibits such abnormality.”
He claimed that after exhausting other avenues to allegedly frustrate Governor Fubara from delivering dividends of democracy, the non-existent lawmakers now fall on the so-called Rivers State Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill 2024 to halt the massive infrastructure development the governor has embarked on.
According to the those parading themselves as lawmakers, Rivers State Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill 2024 seeks to delete Section 3 of 2021 amendment Law to ensure that mobilisation fee of not more than 20 per cent of any contract sum is paid to suppliers or contractors, supported by a contract performance bond.
“It is laughable that in the current economic situation in the country where cost of everything has escalated, some persons who though illegally called themselves lawmakers would said 20 per cent was enough for any serious government contractor to mobilise to site and commence work.
“All this is just to put the cart before the horse to stop the infrastructure development in the state as no contractor will be willing to go into that kind of arrangement and make Governor Fubara appear as not performing so that their paymasters will take the glory they had always accorded themselves.”
Recall that Rivers State governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, on Monday, declared that members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, as currently led by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Martins Amaewhule, as non-existent.
Credit: The Nigeria Lawyer