I was Offered N5bn Bribe For Fubara’s Impeachment

March 31, (THEWILL) – Hon. Edison Ehie, Chief of Staff to the suspended Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has alleged that he was offered N5 billion in 2023 to orchestrate the governor’s impeachment. Ehie, who was the Majority Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly at the time, made the claim while speaking on Channels Television’s ‘Sunday Politics’.

“I can also open my phone to show you, in the beginning of October 2023, when they approached me with a bribe of N5 billion. It is here in my phone. It was for impeachment.

I have it, and I have printed it and distributed it, in case, in their evil imagination, they decide to attack me. I already have a son and a brother,” he said. He also denied involvement in the October 29, 2023, explosion at the Rivers State House of Assembly complex, responding to allegations by former Rivers State Head of Civil Service, George Nweke.

Nweke had claimed in an interview that Governor Fubara directed Ehie to orchestrate the incident to prevent his suspected impeachment. “Sir Siminalayi Fubara directed his Chief of Staff to burn down the Assembly to avert his impeachment. That evening, Edison was in Government House with many of his boys, including the former chairman of Obio/Akpor, one Mr.

Chijioke Ihunwo. I was there with them when a bag of money was handed over to Edison for that operation,” Nweke alleged. Reacting, Ehie dismissed the claim, stating that he had instructed his lawyers to file a criminal libel case against Nweke.

“I will not join issues completely with Mr. George Nweke because I have already instructed my lawyers to file an issue of criminal libel against him, and I hope he is very prepared to substantiate his claims. Clearly, the world has seen that George Nweke wasn’t in his right frame of mind.

It is very important to clarify that I had no hand in the burning down of the Rivers State Assembly,” he said. Ehie argued that only the Speaker of the House, Martin Amaewhule, had access to the Assembly premises after working hours or on weekends and should be questioned over the explosion. He also claimed that 10 witnesses, including senior police officers, testified before a Federal High Court in Abuja, stating that they saw Amaewhule’s convoy at the Assembly complex on the night of the incident.

On Nweke’s claim that Fubara was secretly backing Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, for the 2027 presidential election, Ehie dismissed it as false, stating that Nweke did not have the clearance to access the governor. “The records are in the Government House. The security clearance of the Government House, which I superintend or supervise, is with the DSS.

“I challenge George Nweke to provide records showing that from October 29, 2023, as he claimed, to any other day, he visited Government House without prior clearance from the DSS to discuss with the governor. Let him show the record. There is none,” Ehie said.

Referencing Nweke’s wife’s public outcry over her husband’s sudden disappearance, Ehie described him as a man who had “betrayed his conscience” and his family “to own the world.” He also displayed alleged WhatsApp messages showing Nweke soliciting financial assistance after resigning as Head of Service last week, asserting that he lacked contentment..