The last has not been heard of the bickering in Rivers State, as after members of the House of Assembly almost shut down the state, the commissions are following the same path.
The Rivers State commissioners who were not expelled by the Felix Obuah-led state executive of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have said they were considering legal action against the party for giving the impression that they appeared before the performance evaluation committee of the party.
The party had last Monday announced the expulsion of 14 out of the 22 commissioners in the state for failing to appear before a performance evaluation committee set up by the party.
Others expelled were the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), George Feyii; Chief of Staff, Government House, Chief Tony Okocha; former Deputy National Chairman of PDP, Dr. Sam Sam-Jaja and the Administrator of Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority, Mrs. Aleruchi Cookey-Gam.
The commissioners said yesterday while addressing journalists in Port Harcourt they neither received any invitation letter from the committee nor attended the sittings of the committee. They also said they did not send any written report to the committee.
They, therefore, stated that they were at a loss why they were not expelled along with their colleagues, adding that the action was creating the impression that they had jumped Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s ship.
The commissioners at the briefing were Sampson Parker (Health), Alice Lawrence-Nemi (Education), Ipalibo Harry (Empowerment and Economic Generation), Owene Wonodi (Youth Development), George Tolofari (Transport) and Chamberlain Peterside (Finance).
Addressing the journalists, Harry, said: “Taking legal action is like the proper thing to do because it is quite malicious that we, serving under our boss, the governor, presented ourselves to a kangaroo panel of the faction of the PDP that is not even recognised by us.
“We believe in the Godspower Ake-led PDP executive and that is what we are part of. So, it will just not be the right thing to do other than to achieve what they have set out to do to cause disaffection. It has a whole lot of legal implications. Incidentally, even the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice is also expelled from the party, but that does not expel him from the government.”
He, however, said whatever action they would take would depend on the outcome of their consultation with Amaechi and the attorney general.
“There is nothing we will do, including legally, without seeking the advice and opinion of the governor and the legal input of the attorney general. We will make consultations with our boss and some of our colleagues who are not here before we come out with that,” Harry said.
The six commissioners pledged their continued loyalty to Amaechi and denied ever having anything to do with the committee.
Commissioner for Transport, Tolofari, said: “I am as surprised as all of you that my name was not among those expelled from the party. I neither attended nor sent any written report to Obuah’s committee. This is an attempt to cause disaffection among us. I restate my commitment to Amaechi. I stand by him and will stand by him till the end.”
Commissioner for Education, Lawrence-Nemi, said she was not in the country during the committee’s sittings and wondered how she could have gone there.
She said she also did not send anybody there.
On his part, the Commissioner for Youth, Wonodi, also said: “I want to state here without fear or favour that I was not in any way aware of any invitation and I did not also honour any invitation neither did I also submit any written presentation nor did I send anybody in the dream or in reality. Though my name did not appear among those that were expelled from the party, I want to state here that I did not do any of that which they alleged were the reasons why others were expelled. If they do have any proof whatsoever, please, they should make it public.
“However, I will remain committed to the man who has appointed me as commissioner. Irrespective of all persuasions, we are here and we are committed to the government of Amaechi. He is our governor and he is our boss. That is where I remain. I am faithful to this government and I will remain so. One of the reasons I say so is because I think he is unfairly treated. He is virtually being pushed out of the PDP. That is a very wrong thing to do and I am not one who supports what is wrong. If you treat the governor so, it means you are treating me so as well.”
The Commissioner for Finance, Peterside, also said he was out of the country and did not attend the sitting of the panel.
He said: “When I read the story in the papers that 18 members expelled, I assume that by the time I read through I will see my name because I wasn’t invited and nobody would have sent in anything on my behalf without my authorisation. I would not have sent in anything either without our leader giving us the authorisation. But as I read through, I didn’t see my name and I said for whatever reason, I might have been omitted. But what I was looking out for in that report also was to say here are the names of people who sent in representatives or sent in reports. There wasn’t anything about that, so there was only list of people who have been expelled. It is obvious that we are seeing some serious malicious efforts to create disaffection within the cabinet.”
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