Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesome Wike, has said that he has no plan to stop members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from performing the constitutional duties.

Part of the legislative functions of the Assembly is to impeach the governor if he is found wanting for going against stipulations of the law.

The lawmakers, about 27 of them, have been at loggerheads with Governor Siminalayi Fubara as they try to maintain their loyalty to the FCT minister.

The lawmakers led by Martin Amaewhule recently obtained victory at the Supreme Court, which ordered that they should resume their legislative duties.

The governor was also ordered to re-present the 2025 budget to the full House of the Assembly and reconduct the local council elections.

There are speculations about the majority lawmakers plotting the governor’s impeachment.

“I’m not going to stop the Assembly from performing their constitutional duties. People who love peace don’t threaten people,” Wike told a large number of Kalabari people on Saturday.

“Assembly must do their work, whatever they deem necessary and fit, that it is constitutional, they should do.”

He continued, “Let them tell me what initiative they have put on the ground. It is not to abuse us. You can abuse me as much as you want; I never bother myself. abuse Dey kill anybody?

“You don seen who abuse don kill? What is important is the result. Na who get high blood pressure now; no be them?”

message is because I called you and your PA severally in order to inform you of the latest development but no response. I’m very conscious of insecurity because of my old age & for the safety of my people.”

Declaring Abalama a non-partisan community, the king stated, “I and my people disassociate ourselves from the said event because we are not aware of the recent update. I think I was deceived with the letter I received earlier from Dr. D. A. Kelly, FNIQS, not knowing it was a different event that is upcoming.”

He urged the Commissioner of Police to take immediate action, warning that the organisers had no right to proceed without his approval.

“Abalama is an autonomous Community with a King and nobody has the right to organize such an event without my knowledge and the consent of my council of chiefs,” he emphasised.

The monarch concluded by reaffirming the community’s stance. “I and my people have resolved that the organisers of the event should take the event to anywhere of their choice,” he said, making it clear that Abalama would not be part of it.

The US has averted a government shutdown after the Senate passed a Republican-led measure to keep the government funded for the next six months.

The stopgap funding bill passed in the Senate 54-46, as two Democrats joined all but one Republican senator in voting yes. President Donald Trump must now sign it into law before the Friday midnight deadline.

The key vote came earlier when some Senate Democrats, after fierce debate, allowed the measure to pass a procedural hurdle.

The Senate minority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, and nine others broke with their colleagues to vote to advance the bill to its final Friday evening vote.

Two Democrats – Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Independent Senator Angus King of Maine – voted in favour of its final passage. Schumer voted “no”.

On Thursday, he announced he would vote to allow the measure to move forward, saying although it wasn’t a bill he liked, he believed triggering a shutdown would be a worse result.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez called Schumer’s willingness to let the spending bill proceed a “huge slap in the face”, adding that there is a “wide sense of betrayal” among the party, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

She said supporting the bill “codifies the chaos and the reckless cuts that Elon Musk has been pursuing”, and that Senate Democrats who voted yes would be empowering “the robbing of our federal government in order to finance tax cuts for billionaires”.

The Democrats had agonised over whether to support the measure, and eventually pushed for a 30-day continuing resolution that was unlikely to earn enough support to pass.

Senator Ted Cruz accused the Democrats of conducting “political theater” and praised the bill’s passage.

“The government is funded, let’s get back to work,” he said in a statement.

The passage is a victory for Trump and congressional Republicans.

On Friday morning, Trump offered rare bipartisan praise of Schumer’s decision to let the bill advance, writing that “a non pass would be a Country destroyer, approval will lead us to new heights”.

The legislation would keep much of the federal funding levels from the Biden Administration in place, with some key changes.

It increases military spending by $6bn (£4.6bn), for items like border security, veterans healthcare, and military spending. But would cut non-defence funding by about $13bn.

Local officials in Washington DC had feared the bill would result in a $1bn cut in federal funds for the city over the next six months. However, the Senate approved a separate bill that kept its current operating budget intact, the New York Times reported.