The Rivers State House of Assembly has paused impeachment proceedings against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu, following recent intervention by President Bola Tinubu.
The decision was announced on Thursday during plenary at the Assembly’s resumed sitting in Port Harcourt.
Lawmakers had earlier initiated impeachment steps at their first session of 2026, citing allegations of gross misconduct.
During the earlier proceedings, the Majority Leader, Major Jack, read a formal notice outlining the accusations.
The allegations included the demolition of the Assembly complex, extra-budgetary expenditures, withholding funds allocated to the Assembly Service Commission, and alleged non-compliance with a Supreme Court judgment on legislative financial autonomy.
The House invoked Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as the basis for the action.
In a letter dated January 16, 2026, the Assembly asked the state Chief Judge, Justice Simeon Amadi, to constitute a seven-member investigative panel to examine the allegations.
However, the Chief Judge declined, citing a subsisting High Court order restraining him from taking further steps.
Fubara and Odu had separately approached a High Court in Port Harcourt and obtained injunctions barring the Chief Judge from acting on the Assembly’s request or setting up the investigative panel. Justice Amadi also noted that the Speaker and the Assembly had appealed the restraining order.
The impeachment process began shortly after the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, accused Fubara of failing to honour a peace agreement brokered in 2025.
Tinubu subsequently met with Fubara and Wike at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on February 8. Wike later expressed optimism that the political crisis in Rivers State may soon be resolved following the President’s intervention.
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