A socio-political group, The Collective Movement (TCM), has called for the immediate withdrawal of the fresh impeachment notices served on Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu, by the Rivers State House of Assembly on January 8, 2023.
TCM, in a statement released on Wednesday by its founder, High Chief Franklin Ekechukwu, described the move as a threat to Nigeria’s democratic stability.
“We view this move not as an exercise in Constitutional oversight, but as a deliberate attempt to plunge Rivers State back into the political instability that recently necessitated federal intervention,” the TCM founder said.
According to him, this morning’s notice of gross misconduct is a transparent recycling of grievances that have already been addressed through multiple peace accords.
Ekechukwu stressed that the allegations, ranging from the 2024 demolition of the Assembly complex to budgetary disputes, were being weaponised to settle scores following the Governor’s recent strategic political decisions and his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He noted that Rivers had suffered enough from political frictions, stressing that attempting to remove a mandate given by the people, especially after the state had just emerged from a period of state of emergency, is an act of democratic sacrilege.
The founder of the socio-political group, then, urged the Chief Judge of Rivers to remain steadfast in the face of pressures and ensure that the judiciary would not be used as a rubber stamp for political hit jobs.
On the alleged economic sabotage, he observed that by barring the governor from presenting the 2026 budget and the Mid-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), the Assembly would effectively be holding hostage the development of Rivers State.
“No government can function, and no project can be funded, while the legislature remains in a state of self-induced paralysis. This move brazenly ignores the reconciliatory efforts brokered by the Presidency and the subsequent six-month period of administrative transition designed to bring peace to the state.
“Impeachment is a nuclear option” meant for extreme criminality, not for resolving interpersonal disputes between the executive and a legislative faction loyal to external interests,” Ekechukwu stressed.
The TCM leader, however, said that the Rivers state House of Assembly must immediately allow for the formal presentation of the 2026 Appropriation Bill to ensure that the state’s economy does not collapse.
Ekechukwu assured the people of Rivers state, who, he added, were weary of the endless “war of the titans.”
