Oshoma: Tinubu Should Rein In Wike
● Says no court has the power to withhold State funds
By PHC Telegraph
A legal practitioner in the country, Liborous Oshoma has urged President Bola Tinubu to rein in the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barrister Nyesom Wike.
Oshoma who spoke on the Morning Show broadcast by Arise Television Monday said that the President has a responsibility to call the Minister to order following his obvious involvement in the Rivers crisis.
Admitting that the fight between Wike and Governor Siminalayi Fubara is over the control of funds belonging to the people of Rivers State, the lawyer observed that Wike has been able to instigate political instability in his State because of his role as a minister in the administration of President Tinubu.
He recommended that the President should seat with Wike and Fubara to deal with the issue, saying that if Wike refuses to listen to calls for him to recuse himself, he should be sacked from the Federal Executive Council.
Oshoma who relied on constitutional provisions noted that no court acting in the public interest has a right to direct the CBN to withhold funds meant for states and local governments.
But he added that he did not believe that the provisions of Section 109 (1g) of the nation’s Constitution which prescribes what should happen when lawmakers abandon the party which brought them to power for another platform is self executory.
Also speaking on the Morning Show, Jake Epelle, an indigenes of Rivers State accused the Federal Attorney General of bias in the Rivers crisis.
He said it dangerous to introduce politics in matters affecting the welfare and wellbeing of the people.
Epelle agreed that Governor Fubara had been ambushed initially by the nature of the peace deal brokered by the President which was tilted in favour of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and his supporters.
He disagreed with Oshoma over his claim that Rivers elders had all taken sides in the raging conflict, insisting that there were elders of the State who were non aligned.
Epelle referred to the decision of Martins Amaewhule and others to decamp from the PDP in spite of constitutional provisions and wondered which Assembly Fubara would have been required to re-present the State budget to.
Acknowledging that the Rivers people are the ones that are being punished as a result of the actions of politicians, he said that the only way out of the current Rivers crisis lay in pursuing dialogue.
Asked what he would do if he was in Fubara’s shoes, Epelle said he would act the way Fubara has done.
Giving his reasons, Epelle who spoke as a Rivers citizen explained there is evidence that whereas Fubara withdrew all the cases in court as directed by the President after the peace deal was signed, his opponents kept their matter alive in court in defiance of the deal.
He said the President’s role as an impartial arbiter has been gravely impeached by what played out after he intervened and urged a home grown solution to the problem by Rivers people.