Rivers govt redeploys Assembly clerk as political crisis rages

The River State House of Assembly clerk, Emeka Amadi, has been redeployed by the Rivers state government.

Amadi was transferred to the state scholarship board, per a November 20 memo from the office of the head of civil service.

The head of services did not designate Amadi’s successor.

Calistus Ojirika, the deputy clerk and head of department (HOD) of the legislative department, was also transferred by the state government to the readers’ project.

Georgewill Otto, an assistant director at the ministry of physical planning and urban development, was redeployed to Rivers State Small Town and Rural Water Supply Agency.

Amadi and Ojirika were asked to hand over to the most senior officers in the House of Assembly.

According to the circular, the posting takes effect immediately.

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The memo reads, “The Head of Rivers State Civil Service, Dr. George Nwaeke vide Circular No. A238/VOL.XV(15)/81 dated 20th November, 2023 has effected some postings in the state’s civil service”.

In the memo titled, ‘Senior Staff Posting,’ Dr Nwaeke listed those affected to include Mr. Emeka Amadi, Clerk of the Rivers State House of Assembly now deployed to the Scholarship Board.

“Mr IK. Calistus Ojirika, Deputy Clerk and Head of Legislative Department in the House of Assembly now posted to the Readers Project, while Mr. Georgewill Otto an Assistant Director in the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development is now moved to Rivers State Small Town and Rural Water Supply Agency”.

The memo stated that the “posting takes immediate effect and further directs the affected officers to complete handover procedures to the most senior officers in their respective departments as their service records are expected to be moved to the offices of their new postings.”

Earlier, the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, had threatened to sentence Speaker Martin Amaewhule and his deputy, Dumle Maol, as well as 27 other lawmakers opposing Governor Siminilayi Fubara, to prison, if they continued to disobey the court’s directives on the crisis rocking the Assembly.

The threat was issued in Form 48 pursuant to an application filed by factional Speaker Ehie Edison drawing the court’s attention to Monday’s sitting by the Amaewhule group.

The court had, on November 7, ordered parties in the dispute not to take any step concerning the subject matter contained in a substantive suit which Ehie filed before it.