President Bola Tinubu yesterday declared a state of emergency in Rivers State, suspending the state governor, Mr Siminilaye Fubara, his deputy, Prof Ngozi Odu and all the members of the legislature for a period of six months.
In a nationwide broadcast, the president blamed the governor for not doing enough to resolve the political impasse in the state, particularly, non-implementation of the Supreme Court’s judgement of some consolidated appeals as they affect, the presentation of the 2025 appropriation bill to the house of assembly and the fate of the 27 lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), among other issues.
“On February 28, 2025, the Supreme Court, in a judgment in respect of about eight consolidated appeals concerning the political crisis in Rivers State, based on several grave unconstitutional acts and disregard of rule of law that have been committed by the Governor of Rivers State as shown by the evidence before it pronounced in very clear terms: “a government cannot be said to exist without one of the three arms that make up the government of a state under the 1999 Constitution as amended. In this case the head of the executive arm of the government has chosen to collapse the legislature to enable him to govern without the legislature as a despot. As it is there is no government in Rivers State.”
“The above pronouncement came after a catalogue of judicial findings of constitutional breaches against the Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
“Going forward in their judgment, and having found and held that 27 members of the House who had allegedly defected “are still valid members of Rivers State House of Assembly and cannot be prevented from participating in the proceedings of that House by the 8th Respondent (that is, the Governor) in cohorts with four members”
“The Supreme Court then made some orders to restore the state to immediate constitutional democracy.
“These orders include the immediate passing of an Appropriation Bill by the Rivers State House of Assembly which up till now has not been facilitated,” the president said.
Besides, he said both the house of assembly and the governor had been working at cross purposes, not realizing that “they are in office to work together for the peace and good governance of the state.
The president further said some militants had threatened fire and brimstone “against their perceived enemy of the governor who has up till now NOT disowned them.
“The latest security reports made available to me show that between yesterday and today there have been disturbing incidents of vandalisation of pipelines by some militant without the governor taking any action to curtail them,” he added.
With the foregoing, Tinubu said “no good and responsible President will standby and allow the grave situation to continue without taking remedial steps prescribed by the Constitution to address the situation in the state, which no doubt requires extraordinary measures to restore good governance, peace, order and security.”
He said he had “soberly reflected on and evaluated the political situation in Rivers State and the governor and deputy governor of Rivers State having failed to make a request to me as President to issue this proclamation as required by section 305(5) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, it has become inevitably compelling for me to invoke the provision of section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State with effect from today (yesterday), 18th March, 2025 and I so do.
By the declaration, he said Fubara, his deputy, Mrs Odu and all elected members of the state assembly “are hereby suspended for an initial period of six months.”
The president also announced the appointment of a former chief of naval staff, Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas (retd) as the administrator “to take charge of the affairs of the state in the interest of the good people of Rivers State.”
He said the administrator will not make any new laws, but will, however, “be free to formulate regulations as may be found necessary to do his job.”
He added that “such regulations will need to be considered and approved by the federal executive council and promulgated by the president for the state.
“This declaration has been published in the Federal Gazette, a copy of which has been forwarded to the national assembly in accordance with the constitution,” Tinubu stated.
