Port Harcourt – Another chapter has been opened in the unending crisis ongoing in Rivers State between Governor Siminalanyi Fubara and his erstwhile godfather and Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike over the Governor’s appointment of former factional speaker, Edison Ogerenye Ehie as his Chief of Staff.
The recent intervention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the resultant truce which was meant to calm things down seems to have been shortlived.
The bone of contention responsible for the new clash between both camps was the action of Governor Fubara who allegedly appointed a former factional Speaker and his loyalist, Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie as Chief of Staff to the Governor. This move followed Ehie’s resignation as Speaker and member of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
By this reported action, the Governor would use his core loyalists Ehie to replace Chidi Amadi, a strong loyalist and kinsman of Wike. This development opens a new phase of clash between the two men.
Speaking on this development, a close source in the state who craved anonymity said, “His rumoured appointment as Chief of Staff to the governor will open another phase of crisis between Fubara and the Minister of Federal Capital Territory because the present Chief of Staff is Wike’s kinsman and was appointed by the minister.””So, removing him and bringing Ehie will open another phase of the war between Wike and Fubara,” the source stated.
However, a political affairs analyst, Dr Robert Eho pointed out that Wike being angry with Governor Fubara for changing his Chief of Staff was like “marrying a wife for someone and telling him when to or when not to sleep with her”.
The Chief of Staff, Personal Assistant and Aide de Camp(ADC) are personal to every elected Government official and are not appointed by someone else.
