Elders and leaders of Rivers across political party lines have called on the state Governor Siminalayi Fubara, to shelve any plan to tamper with structures at the House of Assembly quarters located along Aba Road in Port Harcourt.
The elders comprising past and present members of the National Assembly, local government chairmen, and opinion leaders spoke on Sunday, when they paid a surprise visit to the quarters to assess the condition of the buildings.
Their intervention was following the recent visit of the governor to the facility and insinuations of a plan to renovate the estate, which currently houses the hallowed chamber of the Martins Amaewhule-led House of Assembly.
Accompanied by other stakeholders in the state, the leaders were received by Amaewhule and other lawmakers and were taken around the structures in the complex and the auditorium that currently serves as a chamber for the lawmakers.
Amaewhule told the leaders that there was a grand plot by the governor to bring down the structures the same way he ordered the demolition of the House of Assembly Complex located along Moacow Road to stop them from sitting.
He said the structures were in excellent condition, fully functional, and were currently occupied by the lawmakers and their family members.
He condemned the way and manner the governor stormed the quarters aided by thugs and armed policemen alleging that Fubara broke the gate and allowed others to scale the fence.
Amaewhule said the lawmakers never invited the governor to come to the quarters adding that the estate remained the property of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
The Rivers State Government is not the office of the governor. It comprises the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. The governor has no right to claim it as his personal property. It is the property of the Rivers State House of Assembly. So without an invitation to the governor, he has no right to break into our property”.
Amaewhule while showing the leaders the current legislative chamber at the complex insisted that the governor had no right to make any executive order directing lawmakers where to hold their sitting.