Impeachment Threat: Security Operatives Seal Off Rivers Assembly Complex

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Security agents yesterday sealed off the Rivers State House of Assembly Complex, along Moscow Road in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

The development may not be unconnected with the rumours that there were plots by five members of the Assembly to impeach the governor, Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, and the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Otelemaba Daniel Amachree.

When LEADERSHIP visited the area, an armoured personnel carrier (APC) was stationed close to the entrance of the complex, while stern looking security operatives, made up of men of the Nigeria Police and State Security Service (SSS) were seen at the entrance of the Assembly.

Efforts to know who was behind the seal-off of the complex proved abortive but a security agent, who pleaded anonymity said the order to seal of the state-of-the-art edifice came from above.

He said the move was an attempt to avoid the breakdown of law and order in the House following the  suspension of 27 lawmakers by the  factional leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Amachree had raised alarm over plots by five members of the House to impeach him and the governor, using a fake mace smuggled into the state by the Felix Obuah –led executive council of the PDP.

Meanwhile, The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers yesterday denied any plan to impeach Amaechi.
The state Chairman of the party, Mr Felix Obuah told journalist in Port Harcourt that the allegation was frivolous and unfounded.

He said, “I’m a law abiding citizen of Nigeria; I know that as a party chairman, I have no constitutional right to impeach a governor. “We are not the legislature that checks the excesses of the executive, we have no such plans because, we have come to unite the state and the party.”

Meanwhile, members of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Rivers State yesterday held a special prayer session towards the success of the re-election of Amaechi, as chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF).