Rivers: 5 pro Wike commissioners give reasons for quitting Fubara’s cabinet

The five pro-Wike commissioners, who resigned from Governor Siminalayi Fubara‘s cabinet on Wednesday have given reasons for their actions.

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

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that their reasons for quitting the cabinet are contained in separate resignation letters dated 15 May and addressed to the Secretary to the State Government, Tammy Danagogo.

Why Wike loyalists quit Fubara’s cabinet

In a letter justifying their resignations, the Commissioners for Housing and Education, Gift Worlu and Chinedu Mmon respectively, attributed their resignation to the “toxic atmosphere that characterised” their relationship with Governor Fubara.

“I resigned with all sense of responsibility especially as there is no room for progression and development in the workplace,” another commissioner, Inime Aguma, who was in charge of the ministry of social welfare and rehabilitation, said in her resignation letter.

For Austen Ben-Chioma and Jacobson Nbina, former commissioners for environment and transport, respectively, they said their resignations were as result of the unending political crisis in the state.

The political crisis

The five former commissioners are loyalists of the immediate-past governor of the State, Nyesom Wike, who is now the FCT Minister.

They were among the nine commissioners that served under Mr Wike administration. Mr Fubara also served under Mr Wike as accountant general of the state.

Mr Fubara inherited the nine commissioners from Mr Wike but the commissioners resigned last December in the wake of the political feud between the FCT minister and Governor Fubara.

The commissioners however returned to Governor Fubara’s cabinet after President Bola Tinubu brokered a peace deal between Messrs Fubara and Wike.

The resignations of the five Wike loyalists came less than a month after two of 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 resigned their appointments.

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The resignation of the five commissioners brings to eight the number of Wike loyalists serving in Governor Fubara’s cabinet who have resigned their appointments. One of them, Dakorinama Kelly-George, who served as commissioner for works, had earlier resigned to take up a federal appointment.

Governor Fubara has so far replaced one of the resigned commissioners with the swearing into office on Monday of Dagogo Iboroma as the new Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state.