Three more commissioners leave Fubara’s cabinet, adding to the wave of defections.
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, as well as the Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Commissioner, Inime Aguma, and their Finance counterpart, Isaac Kamalu, are the most recent to leave the cabinet.
Their resignations came in separate letters to Governor Fubara, only hours after the state’s Attorney-General (AG) and Commissioner for Justice Prof. Zacchaeus Adangor resigned.
“I now quit my appointment as Rivers State Commissioner for Works, effective immediately.” “My decision to quit is based on my conscience, personal philosophy, and professional ethics,” Alabo said to the governor in a letter. “This decision was made after much thought.” I am grateful to Your Excellency for the opportunity to serve as Commissioner for Works in my dear Rivers State.”
The Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, for her part, claimed “personal” reasons for her retirement from the cabinet and expressed her best wishes to the current administration.
“On this day, December 14, 2023, I hereby tender my resignation as the Honourable Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Rivers State,” she wrote. “I am grateful to Your Excellency for the opportunity to serve on the State Executive Council.” My choice to quit is personal, and it is motivated by other pressing obligations. I wish Your Excellency a prosperous tenure and best wishes in all your undertakings.”
However, the Finance Commissioner did not explain why he resigned from the cabinet.
In his letter, he added, “I therefore tell you of my immediate resignation as Commissioner of Finance, Rivers State, with effect from the date mentioned above.” “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve our beloved state under your leadership.”
Adangor announced his resignation earlier in the day, citing “purely personal reasons.”
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 demolished the Assembly complex because he regarded the two-month-old entirely ruined structure inappropriate. 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, viewed as Wike’s friends, from utilising 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 problem by meeting with Wike and Fubara in Abuja, with Fubara declaring the matter resolved, the new wave of resignations in the South-South State is yet another plot in the standoff.