From Tony John, Port Harcourt
A non-partisan group, Coalition of Rivers State Leaders of Thought (CORSLOTS) has expressed dissatisfaction with the presidential peace accord initiated to tackle the political crisis in Rivers State.
The group led by Sunnie Chukumele, made its opinion known while briefing newsmen in Port Harcourt, yesterday.
In a resolution signed by 11 members of the body, the group identified some lop-sidedness in the peace deal alleging that the deal did not reflect the interest of either the governor, Siminalayi Fubara or the state.
They also alleged that the peace move did not address the root cause of the crisis as they identified their misgivings and described some of the clauses as unconstitutional.
They further identified their concerns to include: current status of the defected Rivers State House of Assembly lawmakers and the directive for re-presentation of the 2024 budget.
Others were re-instatement of members of the state executive council who resigned from office in the middle of the political crisis, uncoordinated assembly plenary by the lawmakers, among others.
The statement by the group read in part: “We observed that the Abuja peace proclamation did not recognize constitutional, judicial and legal issues regarding the state House of Assembly members who defected from their political party to a new one.
“Clause 7 of the presidential peace deal if adopted will mean that there are no other persons so qualified to serve in the State Executive Council other than those who willingly resigned their appointments.”
Recall that part of the peace accord reached between President Bola Tinubu, Governor Fubara, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and other key political players in the state was re-presentation of the already passed 2024 budget and was signed into law.
Also, re-instatement of commissioners who voluntarily resigned from office in the face of political rift in the state formed part of the agreement awaiting implementation.