…suspends gov, deputy, lawmakers for six months

*Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas now State Administrator

President Bola Tinubu has declared a state of emergency in Rivers State following the protracted political crisis in the state.

Tinubu made the proclamation during a nationwide broadcast on Tuesday, suspending Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, and all the members of the House of Assembly for six months, in the first instance.

Tinubu announced the immediate appointment of retired Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas as the Administrator of Rivers State, for the period.

Recall that Fubara had until his sack, been embroiled in a battle of wits with his estranged political godfather, Nyesom Wike, the immediate past Governor of Rivers State and current Minister of the Fedaral Capital Territory.

Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution interprets a state of emergency as a situation of national danger or disaster in which a government suspends normal constitutional procedures to regain control.

The President, in the nationwide broadcast, cited the ongoing political deadlock, security threats, and governance failure as the primary reasons for the drastic intervention.

The President also noted that having 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 him as President to issue the 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, 18th March, 2025 and I so do.”

By this declaration, the President said Fubara, his deputy, Mrs Ngozi Odu, and all elected members of the House of Assembly of Rivers State are hereby suspended for an initial period of six months.

President Tinubu insisted that no responsible President would stand by 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 watched with concern the situation, in the hope that the parties involved would allow good sense to prevail at the soonest, but that all that hope burned out without any solution to the crisis.

With the crisis persisting, he noted, there was no way democratic governance, “which we have all fought and worked for over the years, can thrive in a way that will rebound to the benefit of the good people of the state.

The President stated that Rivers state had been at a standstill since the crisis started, with the good people of the state not being able to have access to the dividend of democracy

Tinubu stressed that the new Administrator will not make any new law.

“He will, however, be free to formulate regulations as may be found necessary to do his job, but such regulations will need to be considered and approved by the Federal Executive Council and promulgated by the President for the state, ” he noted.

He added that a declaration to this effect had been published in the Federal Gazette, a copy of which was forwarded to the National Assembly in accordance with the Constitution.

He further expressed the hope that this inevitable intervention would help to restore peace and order in Rivers State, by awakening all the contenders to the constitutional imperatives binding on all political players in Rivers State in particular and Nigeria as a whole.

Recall that Rivers state had been embroiled in political crisis when some members of the state House of Assembly defected to the APC and started impeachment proceedings against the governor.

Governor Similanayi , thereafter, in a swift move to stop the impeachment proceedings ,demolished the complex of the House of Assembly of the state on December 13, 2023.

The President recalled that, “On February 28, 2025, based on several grave unconstitutional acts and disregard of rule of law that have been committed by the Governor as shown by the evidence before the Supreme Court, pronounced in very clear terms as follows that:

“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 Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

“The Supreme Court 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.”