The Rivers Elders and Leadership Forum has expressed concern and condemned the impeachment notice issued against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu, by members of the Rivers House of Assembly.
The position of the elders was contained in a statement signed by the Acting Chairman of the forum, Alabo Dr. G. T. G. Toby.
According to the statement issued on Friday, the elders said impeachment is a “serious constitutional process” and must not be reduced to “a tool for political vendettas or factional struggles.”
The forum described the reasons advanced so far in support of the impeachment as “disturbingly weak,” adding that they lack “substance, public interest justification, or constitutional weight,” the former deputy governor of Rivers State said on behalf of the group.
They warned that the action appears to be driven by “narrow personal interests rather than genuine concern for good governance.”
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The forum said the people of Rivers State gave Fubara’s mandate and can only be questioned in “strict compliance with constitutional provisions, due process, and on the basis of clear, compelling, and verifiable grounds.”
They cautioned that the current impeachment move could “deepen political divisions, erode public trust in democratic institutions, and further destabilise an already fragile polity.”
Recalling the recent period of emergency rule in the state, the forum noted that Rivers State has yet to fully recover from the political, social, and institutional disruptions that followed, warning that the latest development risks
“Reopening old wounds and heightening tensions at a time when stability and focused governance are urgently needed,” the group said.
The elders, therefore, called on the Rivers State House of Assembly to “immediately retrace its steps” and place “the collective interest, peace, and progress of Rivers State above all partisan or personal considerations.”
Source: Channels TV
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