Five more pro-Wike commissioners resign from Fubara’s Cabinet

Five more pro-Wike commissioners in Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s cabinet have resigned their appointments, the Rivers State Commissioner for Information, Joseph Johnson, has said.

“Yes, they have resigned, they are five now,” Mr Johnson told PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday on telephone.

They are Commissioners for Housing, Gift Worlu; Education, Chinedu Mmon; Environment, Ben-Golden Chioma; Transport, Jacobson Nbina; and Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Inime Aguma.

In one of the resignation letters seen by PREMIUM TIMES, Gift Worlu, the commissioner for housing, he blamed his resignation on an attempt by Governor Fubara to “fuse the executive and legislative arms of government” in the state.

“I write to resign my appointment as the Commissioner for Housing formally. One of the most difficult decisions in life yet, it is precipitated by the toxic atmosphere that has characterised our working relationship, especially the smouldering arbitrariness of decisions and actions, including the attempt to fuse the executive and legislative arms of government in Rivers State.”

The resignations of the five Wike loyalists came less than a month after two other colleagues – The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Zacchaeus Adangor and his counterpart in the Ministry of Finance, Isaac Kamalu rejected ther redeployment by Governor Fubara and then resigned their appointments.

The resignation of the five commissioners brings to eight the number of Wike loyalists who have resigned from Mr Fubara’s cabinet.

Another Wike loyalist, Dakorinama Kelly-George, who served as commissioner for works, had earlier resigned to take up a federal appointment.

The six commissioners were among the nine allies of Mr Wike who had resigned their appointment in Mr Fubara’s cabinet last year following the political feud between the governor and his predecessor, Mr Wike, who is now the FCT minister.

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The nine commissioners returned to the cabinet after President Bola Tinubu brokered the now collapsed peace deal between Messrs Wike and Fubara.

It was Mr Wike who helped Mr Fubara, who hitherto served as the accountant general of Rivers, to win the 18 March 2023 governorship election in the oil-rich state.

But their relationship turned sour about four months after Mr Fubara took the Oath of Office as Governor of Rivers State last year.

The hostility between the duo has worsened, defying the peace deal brokered by President Tinubu and splitting the loyalty of the members of the state cabinet and lawmakers in the state between the governor and the minister.