Rivers crisis: No amount too big to pay for peace, says Fubara

Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, says there is no amount too big for him to pay for peace to reign in the state.

Fubara said this while speaking at the convocation ceremony of the Pamo University of Medical Sciences, Iriebe in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State on Tuesday, December 19, 2023.

The governor and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, have been at loggerheads over control of the state’s political structure.

The rift between Fubara and Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), led to a political crisis in the state.

The feud split the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly with 27 of them defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

No fewer than nine commissioners also tendered their resignation from Fubara’s cabinet.

However, the governor, while speaking on Tuesday, promised to abide by the truce brokered by President Bola Tinubu.

READ ALSO: Tinubu halts Wike, Fubara’s rift, gladiators endorse resolutions

Governor Fubara said: “Let me say this to my dear state. I call you my dear state because the support you have shown to me within this period is unmeasurable.

“Ordinarily, I don’t even know them or have any contact with them but they stood by me.

“There is no amount that is too big to pay for peace. I will continue to pay it.”

It would be recalled that President Tinubu, on Monday night, intervened in the political crisis in Rivers State.

Tinubu, in an eight-point resolution signed at the end of a meeting with political heavyweights in the state on Monday, directed that all lawsuits instituted in courts by Fubara and his team regarding the political crisis in Rivers State be withdrawn immediately.

The president ordered that all impeachment proceedings initiated by the Rivers State House of Assembly against Fubara should be dropped immediately.

Governor Fubara was also directed to re-present the 2024 budget he had earlier presented to five members of the Rivers Assembly to the full House.

The Star