The Rivers State Commissioner for Information, Joe Johnson, says his principal, Governor Siminalayi Fubara didn’t sign a “peace agreement” with his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, under duress at the Presidential Villa on Monday.
Johnson made the remarks during a live appearance on Channel’s Lunchtime Politics on Wednesday.
“I was in that meeting and the governor did not negotiate from the place of weakness.
“There was no pressure from anywhere; when people disagree, they come to the round table and settle,” he said.
“There is nothing to doubt it (the agreement), we have gone beyond the issue as to who signed, and who didn’t sign,” Johnson added when asked whether the governor signed the peace agreement.
Rivers State has been a theatre of the absurd in the last three months with the state House of Assembly serving as the “boxing ring”. The rift between Fubara and Wike, split lawmakers in the House with 27 of them decamping from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a party in whose central government Wike currently serves as minister.
The feud also saw the emergence of parallel sittings, an impeachment plot against the governor, the demolition of the Assembly complex, and a gale of resignations of pro-Wike commissioners in Fubara’s cabinet.
The President had on Monday met with Fubara and Wike at the Aso Villa in Abuja.
After Monday’s meeting, the President directed that the warring parties withdraw all matters instituted in the courts by Fubara, and his team, and that the leadership of Martin Amaewhule in the Rivers State House of Assembly be recognised, and not that of Edison Ehie.
Amaewhule and his 26 allies were also said to have been reinstated in the House following the presidential directive. Also, nine commissioners who resigned from Fubara’s cabinet would be reinstated, according to the agreement.
Controversies have since encircled the peace agreement with elder statesman, Pa Edwin Clark, saying that Fubara was “ambushed” into signed the document.
On whether or not Fubara signed the document or not, the information commissioner said for the governor, no price is too high for peace.
“The Bible that we all profess says we should pursue peace will all men at all cost.
“Mr Governor is a stickler for the rules, and if His Excellency, the President has intervened, he (Fubara) is not a man of perfidy. He will not say something and do the other.
“In the next couple of hours, I will be unveiling some of the approvals His Excellency has already given as an indication that he is prepared for peace. It’s part of the process to show that we are committed to it (agreement),” Johnson said.