The Rivers State House of Assembly has said Edison Ehie was never elected as its Speaker.
The Clerk of the Assembly, Emeka Amadi, issued the clarification in reaction to Ehie’s resignation letter as Speaker.
Ehie, who is a loyalist to Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State, had resigned as Speaker of the Assembly as part of efforts to ensure peace between the governor and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike.
Following the political crisis in the state, 26 members of the House who were initially elected under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Their seats were declared vacant by Ehie who asked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct fresh elections to fill up the vacuum that had been created in the Assembly.
While 26 members of the Assembly under the leadership of Amaewhule are loyal to Wike, Ehie and three other lawmakers are loyal to Fubara.
However, a notice by the Clerk maintained that Ehie never occupied the office of the Speaker of the House of Assembly.
The notice reads: “The attention of the Rivers State House of Assembly has been drawn to a letter dated 29 December, 2023, addressed to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and circulating in the media. It was purportedly written and signed by Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie DSSRS – member representing Ahoada East Constituency II in the Rivers State of Assembly wherein he claimed to have resigned from the position of the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, an office he never occupied.
“I am therefore directed to call on the good people of Rivers State to disregard the false claim in this letter that is intended to mislead the unsuspecting public. Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie DSSRS was never at any time in the life of the Rivers State House of Assembly elected Speaker.”
Wike vs Fubara: Edison Ehie was never elected Speaker – Rivers Assembly clears air
