Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, said on Thursday that his predecessor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, remains his principal.
He urged the people of Rivers State to put behind them the discomfort created by the political tension experienced over a week ago in the wake of an explosion in the state House of Assembly.
Fubara, who spoke at the opening of the 2023/2024 Legal Year church service at St. Cyprian’s Anglican Church, Port Harcourt, also urged the people to support his administration in its determined effort to ensure continuous peace and development of the state.
It was the first time Fubara and Wike would be seen together at a public event after last week’s House of Assembly crisis.
Wike had arrived at the church service almost at the end and had a handshake with his successor before sitting on the same row with him while the service lasted.
Fubara started his speech by jokingly appealing to the congregants to suspend the recognition of guests in order not to commit another impeachable offence.
He said, “My oga remains my oga. Whatever that has happened is in the past. I have not sent anybody to malign anybody.”
He said although it had been a trying time for the state, the current phase of political misunderstanding would pass and the promises his administration made to the people would be delivered.
“We have a mission to give you development. We also know that the devil will always come in, one way or the other, but the important thing is for us to identify it and push the devil out of our road so that we can continue.
“We have a mission to give you development. We also know that the devil will always come in, one way or the other, but the important thing is for us to identify it and push the devil out of our road so that we can continue.
“So, I want to thank you for your support and also say that we need peace. Everybody should just relax, and realise that we need peace for us to progress in the state, which is only possible in the atmosphere of tranquility.”
In his sermon, titled “Fear Not,” the Bishop of the Diocese of Niger Delta, Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Oko-Jaja said the spirit of fear needed to be overcome by having a firm trust in God and urged the judicial officers to uphold the truth fearlessly in the discharge of their duties.