Debunking accusations of forced diplomacy, the Rivers State Commissioner for Information, Joe Johnson, took to Channels Television’s Lunchtime Politics on Wednesday to categorically deny claims that Governor Siminalayi Fubara signed a “peace agreement” with his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, under duress.
Speaking live on the program, Johnson, a close confidante of the governor, offered a firsthand account of the Monday meeting at the Presidential Villa, painting a picture far removed from one of capitulation. “I was present in that meeting,” he asserted, his voice steady, “and Governor Fubara did not engage in negotiations from a position of weakness. There was no pressure exerted from any quarter.”
Rivers State has been a theatre of the absurd in the last three months with the state House of Assembly serving as the “boxing ring”. The rift between Fubara and Wike, split lawmakers in the House with 27 of them decamping from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a party in whose central government Wike currently serves as minister.
The feud also saw the emergence of parallel sittings, an impeachment plot against the governor, the demolition of the Assembly complex, and a gale of resignations of pro-Wike commissioners in Fubara’s cabinet.
The President had on Monday met with Fubara and Wike at the Aso Villa in Abuja.
After Monday’s meeting, the President directed that the warring parties withdraw all matters instituted in the courts by Fubara, and his team, and that the leadership of Martin Amaewhule in the Rivers State House of Assembly be recognised, and not that of Edison Ehie.
