Rivers-based activist Jake Epelle on Thursday warned former governor Nyesom Wike to stop issuing impeachment threats against his estranged successor Siminalayi Fubara.
Epelle said Wike cannot advocate peace and yet spur his loyalists in the Martins Amaewhule-led legislative body to impeach the sitting governor of the oil-rich state.
“Let them go and try impeachment, they will not succeed,” Epelle said on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief show.
“Nobody will impeach Fubara. I say that openly on national television because he hasn’t committed any impeachable offence. Nobody will impeach him; the people are solidly behind him.
“Will anything happen if he is impeached? No; the Rivers people are not troublesome the way we are painted but we will stand behind him (Fubara) and stand behind democracy.
“If we don’t stem the tide of this chaos, it can happen to any other person. This threat of impeachment going round should stop.”
There seems to be no end in sight in the protracted feud between the Wike-backed House of Assembly and Fubara as the governor was denied access to the Assembly Quarters on Wednesday when he showed up to re-present the 2025 Budget of the state, as mandated by the House after the Supreme Court verdict of February 28, 2025.
The governor said he communicated his visit to Amaewhule but the Assembly said it received no correspondence to the effect.
Just as the drama unfolded in the South-South state on Wednesday, Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), at a media parley in Abuja, said there is nothing wrong if the lawmakers decide to sack Fubara for alleged impeachable offences including withholding their salaries for months.
Activist Epelle faulted the Assembly for embarrassing the governor and for not committing to the path of peace. He also carpeted Wike for inflaming the situation with his impeachment threat against Fubara.
Epelle said, “Wike doesn’t have the constitutional power to impeach a governor. He can call for impeachment (but) he is not a member of the State Assembly.
“He has the right in his personal opinion to call for his (Fubara’s) impeachment but the people that will execute the impeachment are members of the State Assembly.
“Is there anybody beating the drum for the masquerade that is dancing? Of course, there is.
“I was told that at the point that the governor was coming to the gate, they (assembly members) received a call from Abuja (whoever made that call, I don’t know), that they shouldn’t see the governor.
“So, it’s a case of somebody beating the drum somewhere and the state assembly people are dancing to the beatings of the drum or acting the script that they were given. That’s very unfair.”
