The All Progressives Congress (APC) South-South Group has claimed that the Rivers State House of Assembly lawmakers loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, deliberately issued impeachment threats against Governor Siminalayi Fubara for refusing to approve fictitious projects in the state’s 2026 budget proposal.
The group made the allegation on Friday in Port Harcourt while responding to claims by Rivers lawmakers that Fubara breached the peace agreement brokered by President Bola Tinubu to end the protracted political crisis in the state.
Speaking with journalists, coordinator of the APC South-South Group, Freedom Amadi, said the impeachment move was not rooted in any violation of the peace accord but was a calculated retaliation against the governor for resisting pressure to inflate the budget with questionable line items.
The APC South-South rejected the claim that Fubara acted in bad faith and undermined the Tinubu-brokered deal, arguing that such statements constituted open defiance of presidential authority and threatened democratic stability.
According to the group, the peace deal was intended to restore stability and allow governance to proceed without coercion, not to subject the governor to legislative oversight.
Amadi said, “What is unfolding in Rivers State is not a constitutional dispute but a deliberate attempt to punish a sitting governor for refusing to mortgage public finances for private political interests.
Governor Siminalayi Fubara did not breach the President’s peace accord; rather, he refused to add fictitious projects to the Rivers State budget, and that refusal is now being weaponised against him.
“When legislators publicly declare that not even the President can restrain them, they are not asserting independence; they are advertising institutional insubordination.
President Tinubu intervened in Rivers State as the elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not as a partisan actor, and his peace initiative is not optional or disposable.
“The agreement brokered by Mr President was about restoring calm and respecting constitutional roles, not about handing Rivers State over to political enforcers. Any attempt to twist that agreement into a tool for intimidation or impeachment is a distortion of its spirit and intent.”
The APC South-South also asserted that lawmakers driving the impeachment process against Fubara were acting in alignment with Wike, the former Governor of Rivers State.
The group noted that Wike’s continued silence, despite serving in an APC-led federal government, raised serious questions about loyalty to the President who appointed him.
The APC South-South warned that using impeachment to settle political scores would erode public confidence in democratic institutions and weaken legislative credibility.
Amadi stressed, “It is impossible to separate the current impeachment threats from the political influence of Minister Nyesom Wike. The lawmakers pushing this agenda are his loyalists, and their actions reflect a coordinated effort to retain control of Rivers politics through legislative intimidation.
“President Tinubu extended trust and political goodwill by appointing a PDP member into his cabinet in the interest of national unity. That trust is being abused if a serving minister allows his loyalists to openly undermine a presidential peace initiative. You cannot sabotage peace and still claim allegiance to the authority that brokered it.
“Impeachment is a grave constitutional mechanism, not a political cudgel. What we are witnessing in Rivers State is not oversight but vendetta, not accountability but retaliation against a governor who chose fiscal responsibility over political obedience.”
The pro-APC group called on the Rivers State House of Assembly to suspend all impeachment actions and urged the National Assembly to intervene to prevent what it described as legislative excesses.
The group added, “Legislative impunity in one state endangers democratic order across the federation. Rivers State does not belong to any individual or faction, and its budget is not a private ledger for political godfathers.”
