Acquitted Suspects: Pressure to Implicate Gov Fubara’s Aide

Rivers Assembly Fire: Suspects Claim Pressure to Implicate Aide

​Four individuals—Chime Ezebalike, Kenneth Kpasa, Oladele Lukman, and MacPherson Olumini—who were acquitted of charges related to the October 2023 fire at the Rivers State House of Assembly, have alleged that they were pressured to falsely implicate Edison Ehie, the Chief of Staff to suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

At a press conference in Port Harcourt on April 7, 2025, Ezebalike claimed that a prominent People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader from Obio/Akpor Local Government Area offered them ₦200 million and relocation abroad to alter their statements and name Ehie as the mastermind behind the Assembly fire.

The group recounted their arrests between December 2023 and January 2024, detailing experiences of being blindfolded, denied legal representation, and subjected to coercive interrogation tactics at the Federal Intelligence Response Team (F-IRT) facility in Port Harcourt.

They alleged that a serving member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, accompanied by a security officer, visited them during detention and pressured them to implicate Ehie. Upon refusal, they were allegedly subjected to beatings and starvation.

After over six months in detention, their case was transferred to the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, where all charges were dismissed in November 2024. Now released, they are speaking out to highlight what they describe as the misuse of state institutions for political purposes.

These allegations emerge amidst broader political tensions in Rivers State, including claims by former Head of Service, Dr. George Nwaeke, who alleged that Governor Fubara directed Ehie to orchestrate the Assembly fire