Five pro-Wike lawmakers allege non-payment of allowances

•Speaker: they’re lying

Five members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who are on the side of the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, have alleged that their monthly allowances and other entitlements have been withdrawn since the political crisis started in the state.

The leader of the group, Evans Bipi, who spoke in Port Harcourt yesterday accused the government of ordering the withholding of their allowances and entitlements.

Bipi, who fingered Governor Rotimi Amaechi, said their allowances and security votes have been withdrawn by the House on the orders of the governor.

He said: “Our constituency projects have been halted. As I speak to you now, go and ask if our allowances have been paid. I hereby use this medium to tell governor Rotimi Amaechi to release our allowances.

“The other 27 members have been paid. Why are they holding our own allowances?”

The lawmaker, who represents Ogu/Bolo constituency, said the move by the governor to challenge his suspension from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in court is a wrong one.

He said: “The party has stated in its constitution that it can expel any member found wanting. So, why is Amaechi crying foul over his suspension? Did he give the Obio/Akpor chairman, the vice chairman and the 17 councillors a fair hearing before suspending them? This was how he suspended former Okrika Local Government Area chairman.”

But Speaker Otelemaba Dan-Amachree, said the five pro-Wike lawmakers are crying wolf where none exists because no lawmaker has been paid since the crisis started.

The Speaker, who spoke through his Press Secretary, Jim Opiki, denied that the governor ordered the withholding of the lawmakers’ allowances and entitlements.

He said the Assembly has not been sitting due to the security challenges in the state and wondered how their allowances and entitlements will be paid when the Assembly is on recess.

“Nobody in the Assembly has been paid any allowance; everybody will be paid as soon as the House reconvenes.”

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