Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers has said the resignation of Ehie Edison as the factional speaker of the state house of assembly was part of the peace deal brokered by President Bola Tinubu.

Mr Fubara and his predecessor and current Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, Nyesom Wike, are locked up in a fierce political battle that has battered the state assembly and factionalised lawmakers after the failed impeachment plot against the governor.

Mr Edison also resigned last weekend as a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly despite a court order authenticating his faction as lawful and restraining others from parading themselves as state lawmakers.

The seats of other aggrieved lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressive Congress (APC) were declared vacant and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was called upon to conduct a fresh election to fill the vacant seats.

But part of the peace deal brokered by the president was the restoration of rights and privileges of the defected lawmakers.

Confirming the development, Mr Fubara while addressing dignitaries at the first state banquet he hosted at the Government House in Port Harcourt on Monday night, said the stepping aside of the state lawmaker was for peace, though not captured in the singed pact in the public domain.

“Most of you were worried why the Speaker resigned. It is to tell you what we can do for peace,” the governor said. “It is not about what we want to gain. It is not about the power we want to exercise. But at the end of the day, ask what are we leaving for our people.

“So, we took those decisions, not out of fear, but because at the end of the day when we leave here, we want you to remember us not as leaders with fear but remember us for our simplicity, our care, that we are prepared to give in anything for the interest of our dear state.”

He said though everyone would not like the content of the peace agreement, it was in his place as a leader to enforce it.

Rivers will lose if we fight dirty

Mr Fubara, whose speech intermittently drew applause from the crowd, also said he does not intends to fight dirty because of its negative implications for peace and development in the state.

“I want to leave you with only this message. We will not disappoint you. We, also, will not be involved in any dirty fighting because we know that we are going to be the losers.

“The year 2024 is for all of us. If I could survive, you that don’t have any problems, you’ll survive better than me."