The Rivers State House of Assembly on Friday passed a resolution, requesting the state’s Chief Judge to investigate the governor of the state, Siminalayi Fubara, and his deputy, Ngozi Odu, over allegations bordering on gross misconduct.
The decision was taken during plenary, with 25 lawmakers voting in favour of the motion to forward the matter to the chief judge for further probe, in line with Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The allegations against the governor and his deputy include budgetary impropriety, failure to present the 2026 Appropriation Bill to the assembly, unauthorised expenditure of public funds, withholding of statutory allocations to the legislature, and other acts deemed to constitute gross misconduct.
Speaker of the house, Martins Amaewhule, who presided over the session, directed the clerk to formally write to the chief judge within the stipulated timeframe to constitute a seven-member investigative panel to examine the claims.
The development marks the next procedural step in the ongoing impeachment proceedings initiated on January 8, when the assembly served notices on Fubara and Odu.
The lawmakers had launched the process after Major Jack, leader of the assembly, read gross misconduct charges against Fubara, which was signed at the time by 26 legislators.
Majority of the lawmakers are loyal to Nyesom Wike, minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who has been campaigning against Fubara’s re-election bid, after accusing the governor of breaching a peace agreement they both signed before President Bola Tinubu lifted the emergency rule in Rivers.
