The Rivers State House of Assembly has stepped back from its push to impeach Governor Siminalayi Fubara and Deputy Governor Ngozi Odu, after the process was blocked by court orders and overtaken by political negotiations at the highest levels of government.
The Assembly announced the suspension of proceedings during its Thursday, February 19 sitting, effectively putting on hold a process that had kept the state on edge for weeks.
The impeachment effort had been launched in January 2026 when 26 lawmakers signed a notice accusing Fubara of seven counts of gross misconduct under Section 188 of the Constitution.
The charges ranged from the alleged demolition of the Assembly complex to extra-budgetary spending, withholding of legislative funds, and defiance of a Supreme Court ruling on the Assembly’s financial autonomy.
Separate allegations were also filed against Deputy Governor Odu, including claims of unconstitutional expenditure and obstruction of legislative activities.
However, the process hit a wall when the state’s Chief Judge, Simeon Chibuzor-Amadi, refused to set up the constitutionally required seven-member panel to investigate the allegations.
His decision was based on a court injunction issued on January 16 by Justice Florence Fiberesima, which restrained all key parties from taking further action on the impeachment after Fubara and Odu challenged the proceedings in court.
The legal setback was compounded by political pressure from multiple directions.
Even the Rivers State chapter of the APC publicly opposed the impeachment, calling it destabilising and unnecessary despite the fact that the lawmakers driving the process are widely seen as allies of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, a fellow APC stalwart.
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President Bola Tinubu also intervened directly, summoning both Wike and Fubara to the Presidential Villa on February 9 for a closed-door mediation session.
Wike confirmed the meeting and expressed hope that the president’s intervention would finally bring lasting peace to the state, noting it was the second time Tinubu had stepped in to resolve the dispute.
The feud between Fubara and Wike has been the defining political drama in Rivers State since 2023.
A previous impeachment attempt in March 2025 spiralled into a constitutional crisis so severe that the president declared a state of emergency, suspended both the executive and legislature for six months, and installed a sole administrator.
Fubara was eventually restored to office following a political settlement but tensions never fully subsided.
His defection from the PDP to the APC in December did little to ease the rivalry, and a fresh impeachment notice soon followed.
With the Assembly now standing down, the immediate crisis appears to have cooled.
But whether the peace holds will depend on the outcome of pending court cases and the durability of the political truce brokered by the presidency.