Honourable Victor Oko Jumbo, member representing Bonny Constituency, who is believed to be loyal to embattled governor Siminalayi Fubara, on Wednesday emerged as the factional Speaker of the Rivers Assembly.
This latest development, however appears to have led to the total collapse of the peace deal brokered between the warring parties by President Bola Tinubu earlier this year.
Oko-jumbo was elected at a sitting in Port Harcourt by lawmakers loyal to Mr Fubara, according to sources familiar with the political face-off in the State.
Meanwhile, Jumbo becomes the third Speaker under the current administration after Hon. Edison Ehie and Hon. Martin Amaewhule.
Amaewhule, a strong ally of the former controversial governor and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike, was impeached last year, giving room for Edison, who later resigned in December 2023.
Edison’s resignation comes shortly after the peace accord between governor Fubara and his predecessor, Wike, to pave the way for Amaewhule to return to his seat as Speaker.
Recall that Mr Fubara had declared that the majority of 27 members of the Assembly, who cross carpeted from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the state, did not exist.
“Let me say it here, those group of men who claim that they are Assembly members, they are not existing. I want it to be on record.
“I accepted that peace accord to give them a floating (soft-landing). That’s the truth. There is nothing in that peace accord that is a constitutional issue. It is a political solution to a problem. I accepted it because these are people that were visiting me and we were together in my house,” he said on Monday.
The face-off between Fubara and Wike has dominated the media in the past few months with no solution in sight to end the political brouhaha.
The fight has led to an attempt to remove the governor, after the defection of the 27 members of the ruling PDP to the opposition APC and declaration of their seats vacant.
The conflict also led to the demolition of the State House of Assembly complex and after bombed by political thugs.
