Rivers Political Imbroglio: EK Clark pens an open letter to National Chairman of APC, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje and Acting National Chairman of PDP, Amb. Umar Damagum

20th MAY 2024

The Acting National Chairman of PDP,
PDP National Secretariat,
Wadata Plaza,
Wuse Zone 5, Abuja.

And

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Dr Abdullahi Ganduje
The National Chairman of APC,
40 Blantyre Cres,
Wuse 2. Abuja.

E.K. CLARK ACCUSE THE NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF THE ALL PROGRESSIVE CONGRESS (APC) DR ABDULLAHI GANDUJE AND THE ACTING NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF THE PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY (PDP) AMB. UMAR DAMAGUM OF PLANNING WITH NYESOM WIKE TO SABOTAGE THE ELECTED GOVERNMENT AND GOVERNOR, SIR SIMINALAYI FUBARA IN RIVERS STATE; THEIR PARTY EXECUTIVES SHOULD CALL THEM TO ORDER.

My dear Chairmen,
As a patriotic old statesman, I strongly believe that I should address this letter to you to call to order FCT Minister, Chief Nyesom Wike, because he is dancing naked in the open market in the politics of madness in Rivers State with one leg each in the two parties.
I know both of you are fully aware and involved in the political crisis in Rivers State which is caused by Wike who is controlling the two parties in Rivers State particularly the PDP. I strongly advise both of you to withdraw from the madness of politics of Rivers State to avoid the dangerous crisis facing Rivers State, one of the most important states producing the resources used to sustain the economy of this country. I hope you do not forget that the International Oil Companies (IOCs) and the deep seaport of Onne are very well established in Rivers State. How can the Federal Government and the two main political parties allow an individual to disrupt and cause confusion, harassment of the democratically elected Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara on the guise that he alone and not the people of Rivers State made Fubara Governor, in his provocative and inciting statement?

He apologized to the Rivers People for choosing Fubara to become Governor of Rivers State at Ogu town in Ogu-Bolo LGA.

In addressing the lawmaker representing Ogu-Bolo constituency in the House of Assembly who defected from PDP to APC, Wike declared, “Let me say this clearly, Arnold, don’t be frightened that anybody will remove you as an assembly member. Most of you don’t understand, this is our work. What I am doing is to make them fail, to make them angry. I have no other job than to make them angry everyday, to make them make mistakes everyday and they will be in trouble everyday. So don’t worry yourselves. If they like they can go to anybody by 2am or 4am to get injunction. The law will take its cause. We are not afraid, we followed due process, we must follow due process, we are not going to harm anybody, we are not going to give money to anybody to buy arms and kill anybody. We won’t do that.”

Nyesom Wike aggressively boasted that nobody can remove the member representing Ogu-Bolo Constituency. Therefore one is tempted to guess what this dangerous, diabolical and mischievous politician can do to breach the constitution and cause a breakdown in law and order in the country. He is not in a position to amen section 109 (1g) of the constitution and he is not in a position to undermine the Supreme Court judgement which has now been firmly accepted as precedent, which binds all Courts in Nigeria.

Listening to Wike who is a self imposed leader of the party PDP and the champion of madness in Rivers Politics is also controlling the ruling party APC by appointing a caretaker committee under the former Chief of Staff to Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Chief Tony Okocha, while he is not the legitimate chairman of APC in Rivers State. The legitimate Chairman Emeka Beke was suspended and was replaced with Chief Tony Okocha, because of his close relationship with the Leader of APC in the state, in person of Rt Hon Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi. Chief Tonye Cole, the APC gubernatorial candidate in Rivers State also belongs to the elected executives. Nyesom Wike, in order to impress the Presidency and APC in Abuja, decided to create the Chief Tony Okocha led caretaker committee with which he now deals with the APC in Rivers State with the approval of the National Chairman of APC. One maybe tempted to ask the National Chairman of APC why he chose to deal with a caretaker committee of APC which the Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike had earlier presented the committee to him in the APC secretariat in Abuja before constituting it as a caretaker committee. But curiously, you now deal with a caretaker committee instead of the elected Chairman. I hope you are aware of the court action filed against you and APC by the elected Chairman of APC in Rivers State, Emeka Beke. The old APC members by law are the APC leaders because they were never removed before the illegal caretaker committee was imposed on Rivers State, who are loyalist to Wike. The legally constituted executives are in court, challenging the imposition of the caretaker committee on Rivers State chapter of the APC by the NWC.

By his statements, he made it very clear that he is at work in Rivers State to intimidate, harass, disorganise the state in order to replace Governor Fubara with the former Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon Martins Amaewhule, through impeachment. In his usual contradiction, he stated at a new year banquet on Sunday 7th January 2024, in his massive building standing tall in a large expanse of land, that this trouble between him and the elected Governor started when the Governor and others planned to remove Hon Amewhule as speaker of Rivers State house of Assembly and Wike reacted that you can’t do that to an Obiakpo son. Meanwhile, he had held meetings with his loyal 27 members of the House to impeach the newly elected Governor of Rivers State. The House met at an ungodly hour at 7am and 23 members signed the notice of impeachment against the Governor and as part of the arrangement, the 27 members again met at the same venue on 11th December 2023 and defected en mass to APC, singing APC songs and waving APC flags and both of you were part of this wicked arrangement made by Wike. Indeed, that was the day the almighty Wike wanted to install an APC Government in Rivers State to show President Bola Tinubu how influential he was in Rivers State.

The 27 members miscalculated, that they were now going to form an APC controlled House of Assembly upon their defection. They were wrong because section 109 (1g) and 2 categorically made it clear that if there is no factionalisation, total division from National to ward level, all those who were sponsored by PDP as a party automatically lost their seat and there is no constitutional provision to return to PDP. The remaining 4 members who did not defect remain legitimate members of the House and elected the majority leader of the House Hon Edison Ehie to become the speaker who immediately in his new position and in accordance with the constitution declared their seats vacant and informed INEC accordingly on 14th December 2023 and later went to court for approval, where the court later declared that the 27 lawmakers have lost their seats.

CONSPIRACY THEORY AT WORK

Amb Damagum cannot honestly claim to be unaware of this grave anti-party activities being executed by Nyesom Wike, when he (Wike) secretly took court injunction against founding and senior members of PDP and senior officials from Rivers State like, the former National Chairman of PDP Prince Uche Secondus, His Excellency Celestine Omehia, former Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon Austin Okpara who was Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives in Abuja, Dr Abiye Sekibo, former Minster of Transportation, Sen Lee Maeba, etc in order to prevent them from attending the PDP NEC meeting of 18th April, 2024. Every attempt made by these victims of oppression to vacate the injunctions did not succeed. Hon Sokari Goodboy, a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly representing Ahoada West who did not defect to APC was arrested on 18th April 2024 at the NEC meeting.

Prince Uche Secondus has been a member of PDP since inception and he has acted as Organising Secretary, Deputy Chairman and National Chairman and one of those responsible for Wike’s election as Governor of Rivers State in 2015. In fact, it is the same diabolical Wike who sponsored Secondus to become the National Chairman of PDP, but when Wike was fired by his Presidential ambition, he decided to remove the National Chairman right from his ward. Today, the case is still pending in the Supreme Court.

This ugly godfatherism is no doubt eating into the fabrics of our democracy thereby affecting the quality of our leaders in the National Assembly and 36 states various House of Assembly and also affecting our choice of politician to man the various parastatals. Wike as the godfather of Governor Fubara want him to worship God through him and not direct to God because he used him to install him as Governor.
Recently, Governor Fubara in his public speech appreciated what Wike did for him to become the Governor of Rivers State, but Wike want him to worship him but the Governor said I cannot worship human beings but God. Even though Wike said they will not resort to violence, through the use of guns, but his plans are more dangerous than the use of guns.

At this juncture, it maybe necessary to refer to Wike’s politics of Madness in 2013 during Amaechi’s Administration as Governor of Rivers State, where Wike as Minister of State Education in Abuja appointed by President Jonathan, used his influence at the presidency which he is now doing again to allow 5 members of the House namely Evans Bapakaye Bipi, Michael Chinda, Godspower Wogu, Victor Ihunwo and Michael Amaewhule to impeach the speaker of the House, Rt Hon Otelemaba Amachree and to impeach Governor Amaechi. These 5 members were fully supported by the security forces and wike as a result cause a free for all fight in the House on arrival of then Governor, Rotimi Amaechi. The maze was broken into two and one of the members of the House of Assembly was injured by another member with the broken maze in person of Chidi Lloyd, who has now been planted by Wike as the Chairman of Emuoha LGA and the injured member had to be flown abroad for treatment.

As politics of madness in Rivers State was being masqueraded by both Governor Rotimi Amaechi and his former Chief of Staff, Nyesom Wike worsen, the then Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi decided to close down the House of Assembly for one year and also close down the judiciary when his candidate for then post of Chief Judge of Rivers State was not approved by the National Judicial Commission (NJC). You can therefore see from the above that the man who arrogantly and mischievously claim the leadership of politics of Rivers State is now parading shamelessly as the leader of Rivers State politics by masterminding the confusion of the two parties and both of you i.e the National Chairman of APC and the Acting National Chairman of PDP are supporting his irresponsible actions because you are benefiting from the misdeeds. Wike who had earlier refused to become a minister under President Tinubu, later changed his mind when his party, the PDP under the Chairmanship of Amb Damagum and understanding between the two parties which will make room for the inclusion of other members from other parties in President Tinubu’s Government could have been initiated by the PDP NEC, but this was not to be.

Your Excellency, my Ambassador, you and your Godfather, Nyesom Wike are fully and openly engaged in dividing PDP to enable Wike to become a full member of APC after he has succeeded in destroying or factionalising PDP to give APC an easy ride in 2027. I sincerely believe in the name of the almighty God that you will never achieve your objective before you perish politically in your mischievous and fraudulent anti-party activities. Mr Ambassador, I am also aware that you are not happy at the public statements made by the PDP publicity Secretary Barr Debo Ologunagba because you perceived he is working against your mischievous agenda. At this juncture, one maybe tempted to ask, why the acting National Chairman of PDP has gone to court to stop NEC from removing him from office in August. I mentioned this in my last letter to you that you and your master Mr Wike come August will derail the PDP NEC meeting fixed for that period.

My dear Chairmen, both of you have deliberately breached two important sections of your party constitution which says that when a position is vacant in the NWC, the replacement should come from the same zone of the person who left the office, but both of you are from the North West, whereas, your former National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu and Iyor Chia Ayu are from the North Central. Like your Godfather, you do not believe in law and order but confusion.

I read with disappointment and dismay the contradictory and fraudulent document issued by Ganduje’s APC NWC and I am shocked that the National Publicity Secretary of APC Felix Morka who is a lawyer would fabricate falsehood as a defence to the egregious and unwarranted interference of the PDP controlled Rivers State Government. One thing is clear, that APC has no member amongst the 32 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and therefore were not in a position or qualified to take over the Government of PDP in Rivers State. Wike and your acting Chairman of APC caretaker committee in Rivers State even though they exist in Rivers State, a state executive of APC.

The APC National Publicity Secretary as a lawyer should have read section 109 (1g) properly particularly at a time when PDP has not split, has not broken into factional parts and has not merged with any other party. In fact, Nyesom Wike and Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State attended the full caucus meeting of the PDP and the NEC meeting of PDP held at the PDP Headquarters on 18th April, 2024 and both the Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum and the National Secretary Samuel Anyanwu in whom the so called 27 members cited as a division in PDP because the Secretary was in court against PDP at the time.

The defection of the 27 members of PDP, the party that sponsored them during the elections to another party during the unexpired period of their term, have automatically lost their seats as enshrined in section 109 (1g) of the 1999 constitution as amended.

Felix Morka, one of my sons from Delta State, should educate the APC members of NWC and I have therefore decided to reproduce part of the famous Judgement of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in a full 7 man panel under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Musa Muhammad and that will definitely take care of the fabrication and contradiction by APC NWC, He held that; “The principles enunciated by this court in the two cases – FEDECO vs Goni and Attorney General of the Federation vs Abubakar supra- is to the effect that only such factionalization, fragmentation, splintering or ‘division’ that makes it impossible or impracticable for a particular party to function, as such will, by virtue of the proviso to section 68 (1) (g), justify a person’s defection to another party and the retention of his seat for the unexpired term in the House, in spite of the defection. “Otherwise, has rightly held by the courts below, the defector automatically loses his seat.”

“Justice Muhammad explained that by virtue of the combined provisions of section 68(a) and (g), as well as Section 222(a), (e) and (f) of the constitution, division in a party at the state level did not entitle a legislator to abandon the party on which platform he or she contested and won his or her seat.”

You may want to know that I am an old colleague of yours of about 60 years at the Bar and who have served this country in various capacities and I am therefore tempted to refer to a few of similar cases for the benefit of younger lawyers and politicians and one of such cases is a case of Dapianlong and Dariye;

“The interpretations go as far back as 2007, in the case of Dapianlong v Dariye II (2007) 8 NWLR (Pt. 1036) 332 SC, pg 435, par. G-H thus:

“By virtue of section 109(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution, where a member of a State House of Assembly leaves the political party on whose platform he or she was elected into the House of Assembly, that person is deemed to have vacated his or her seat in the House of Assembly. In the instant case, when the fourteen members of the Plateau State House of Assembly, including the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the House, left the Peoples’ Democratic Party on whose platform they were elected into the House of Assembly, to join another political party, they were deemed to have vacated their seats in the Plateau State House of Assembly.”

I respectfully draw attention to word “deemed” as conveyed in the afore-quoted decision, which connotes that the vacancy in the seat of the decamping legislator takes automatic effect, it ought not to require any further action as it is explicit from the letters and spirit of the constitutional provisions. It is the honourable thing to be done by the legislators as enjoined by the Supreme Law of the land. This point was made by Justice Ogunwunmiju JCA (as he then was, now JSC) in the case of Hon. Efe Godfrey Ofobruku v Democratic Peoples Part & Anor (2015) LPELR-24899 (CA)(Pp. 23-24, paras. D-A) thus:

“A clear look at section 109 (1)(g) shows that it is mandatory for the elected members to vacate his seat immediately on decamping to another party where there is no division within his own party. It should be a voluntary honourable action on his part. It is when this is not done, that the Speaker is then called upon by Section 109(2) to give effect to the provision of Section 109(1)(g) by presenting evidence to the House that the member has fallen foul of S. 109(1)(g) and then after deliberation, the member is given the decision of the house.”

The former speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Martins Amaewhule’s intervention was no longer necessary because he was one of those who automatically lost their seat when he defected to APC, a party that was neither represented nor had a member in the Rivers State House of Assembly.

I have also been informed that the National Chairman of APC Dr Abdullahi Ganduje argued that the Kano State House of Assembly or Government has no power to probe him and that it had never happened before and this is a blatant lie. The leader of NNPP, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was probed by the Government of Ibrahim Shekarau, Kwankwaso’s successor in office as Governor of Kano State. He was indicted for embezzling the sum of ₦850,050,982.33 from the State Ecological Fund by a Judicial Commission of Inquiry, leading to the adoption of the Kano State White Paper No. 8, Volume 36, published on the 25th of November, 2004. In his desperation to suppress his corrupt indictment, he took his successor, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau along with 7 others, including the Judge of Kano High Court, Hon Justice Ahmed Badamosi to court, in suit No. K/722/2004 where the Court upheld his indictment. He later went on to the Appeal Court in Kano, in Suit No. CA/K/57/2005 challenging the judgment of the lower Court; the Higher Court also dismissed his case on the ground that it lacked merit. It is therefore proper for you, the National Chairman of APC to note that, just as Kwankwaso was probed for his 4 years administration, between 1999 and 2003, you also can be probed as it will happen to Nyesom Wike in Rivers State.

The support given to Nyesom Wike by both party Chairmen has made him courageous enough to intimidate and anger the Rivers State Governor and Government and this is seen as an act to overthrown the duly elected Governor, which is criminal.

Finally, I am therefore appealing to you, in the interest of peace and stability in Nigeria to disassociate yourselves from the diabolical and mischievous plan by Wike for no just cause to bring down the Government of his successor, Governor Fubara. I strongly advice both of you to retrace your steps and take charge of your political parties in Rivers State and not leaving it for Wike who is neither PDP nor APC.

CHIEF (DR.) EDWIN KIAGBODO CLARK OFR, CON
FORMER MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND,
SENATOR OF THE 2ND REPUBLIC.