President Bola Tinubu on Monday lambasted Siminalayi Fubara when the Rivers governor and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, had a peace meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, at least two sources who were present at the meeting told PREMIUM TIMES, Tuesday evening.
Mr Tinubu chaired the meeting which was attended by Vice President Kashim Shettima, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, a former governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili, and the chairpersons of the PDP and the APC in Rivers.
The sources said the president was “very angry” with Mr Fubara over the demolition of the Rivers House of Assembly Complex in the course of the power tussle between the governor and Mr Wike, describing it as a “desecration of democracy”.
Mr Tinubu said at the meeting that he has fought for democracy all his life and that he could not imagine a governor demolishing a “symbol of democracy” like the House of Assembly, “wiping out history, not allowing anything to be taken away from there, just destroying it and everything.”
He mentioned that when he was the governor of Lagos State, the state assembly once stood up to him, but that he simply respected them and met them halfway in their demands.The sources said President Tinubu, at the Abuja meeting, made reference to how he had a “problem with someone in Lagos”, apparently referring to his political disagreement with the then Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos and how he stopped the governor from getting re-elected.
The president said he did not take the laws into his hands, but that he waited till election season for the “renewal of mandate”.
It is believed that with this particular comment, the president, in a way, was telling Mr Wike to back down in the Rivers crisis.
Mr Tinubu, according to the sources, told all the parties in the crisis to maintain peace and not to take any action that is outside the realms of the country’s law.One of the sources told PREMIUM TIMES that it was clear to everyone in the meeting that Mr Wike could remove Governor Fubara from power within days, given that he controls the majority of the Rivers lawmakers.
The source, however, said that “people in the meeting felt that the president believes that Fubara must be given another chance”.
Culled from Premium Time