*PDP Govs: Declaration Biased, Divisive, Demands Reversal
THE suspended Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, has charged the people of the state to remain calm amid the political impasse in the state.
Fubara, in a statement he personally signed, said all his actions and decisions have been guided by his constitutional oath of office and a great sense of duty since taking office on May 29, 2023.
He stated: “I address you today with a deep sense of responsibility and calm, as we navigate this unfortunate moment in our state’s political history.
“Since assuming office as your governor, we have prioritised the protection of lives and property and ensured the continuous progress of our dear state.
“Even in the face of the political impasse, we have remained committed to constitutional order and the rule of law, putting the interest of our people above all else.
“This was why, immediately after Mr. President’s intervention to broker peace, we did not hesitate to implement the agreed terms in good faith, including welcoming back commissioners who had previously resigned of their own volition.
“Furthermore, we moved swiftly to comply with the Supreme Court’s judgment immediately after we received the Certified True Copy of the judgment to return the state to normalcy.”
These steps, he said, were taken not for personal gains, but to foster peace, unity, and stability in the state, adding: “Unfortunately, at every turn, members of the Rivers State House of Assembly frustrated our efforts, thus making genuine peace and progress challenging.
“Our priorities remained the security of lives and property and advancing the well-being and prosperity of Rivers people.
“Yes, we have political disagreements, but good governance had continued, salaries have been paid and great projects were being executed to move the State forward. Above all, Rivers State is safe, secure and peaceful under our watch.
“At this critical time, I urge all Rivers people to remain peaceful and law-abiding. We will engage with all relevant institutions to ensure that our democracy remains strong and that Rivers State continues to thrive.
“We have always been resilient people, and we will face this situation with wisdom, patience and unwavering faith in the democratic process.”
Recall that President Bola Tinubu had on Tuesday, March 18, declared a state of emergency in the state, suspending Fubara, his Deputy, Mrs. Ngozi Odu, and members of the House of Assembly for an initial, and appointed a former naval chief, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ette Ibas (rtd) Administrator for the period.
Following the declaration, a detachment of heavily armed soldiers quickly moved into the Governor’s official residence on Tuesday night, ostensibly to secure peace, allegedly holding Fubara and his family members hostage, temporarily, at the Government House, Port-Harcourt.
The soldiers were reported to have barricaded all entrances and exits to the Government House immediately after the President’s declaration, preventing Fubara and his family from removing their personal belongings.
A family source told a national dialy that they were being held hostage, adding: “They said they don’t have instruction to let anyone leave the premises.”
It was not possible to immediately get the reaction of the military authorities. Meanwhile, Peoples Democratic Party governors, under the aegis of PDP Governors’ Forum, described the President’s action as unstatesmanlike, biased and divisive.
The Forum, chaired led by Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, in a statement on Wednesday, March 19, expressing worry that under Tinubu’s watch, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mr. Nyesom Wike, has become a law unto himself, decrying what it called Tinubu’s “passive and enabling” silence regarding Wike’s active involvement in the political crisis in the state.
The PDP governors urged the President to reverse what they termed “the harmful and regressive” decision before it becomes too late.
According to the statement: “The Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum notes with grave concern and utter misgiving, the suspension of democratic rule in Rivers State by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his nationwide broadcast of Tuesday, 18th March, 2025.
“We stand in solidarity with Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State and the good people of Rivers State at this very difficult and trying moment of the state’s political history. There is no other time that our philosophy of touch one touch all is more apt than now.
“He who goes to the court of equity must go with clean hands. Mr. President, your silence on the active role played by your Minister of the FCT in the Rivers impasse is golden and enabling. He has become a law unto himself, because he was playing out your script. Now we know. This is totally unstatemanly, biased, and divisive.
“We state categorically that this unwarranted, but premeditated attack on Rivers State and the Peoples Democratic Party and other opposition parties is today, the greatest threat to democracy in our dear country, Nigeria and it is an ill-wind that will blow no one any good.
“It is a dangerous course of action that will not only endanger our hard-won democracy, but will also exacerbate the crises in the nation, deepen mistrust, elevate security threats, destroy the economy and our national cohesion and stability.”
It added: “The Nigerian Bar Association, in its response signed by its President, Mazi Afam Osigwe (SAN), has already expressed grave concern about the purported suspension by the President of the Governor of Rivers State, the Deputy Governor and the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
“The NBA affirmed its commitment to upholding the Constitution, defending democratic governance, and ensuring that the rule of law prevails in Nigeria.
“In their words, ‘a state of emergency is an extraordinary measure that must be invoked strictly within constitutional limits. The removal of elected officials under the pretext of emergency rule is unconstitutional and unacceptable.’
“The Forum completely aligns itself with the NBA and promises to subject Section 305 (3) of the Constitution to judicial interpretation. This authoritarian shenanigan is unacceptable and cannot stand.
“Mr. President is, therefore, called upon to listen to wise counsel and the voice of reason, as well as accept that he made grievous mistakes and acted in haste, and reverse this atrocious and retrograde decision before it is too late.”
Tinubu Against State Of Emergency By Jonathan
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu is the third President to invoke Section 305 of the Constitution, after former President Olusegun (twice) in Plateau (2004) and Ekiti (2006), and former President Goodluck Jonathan in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states at the height of insurgency in 2013.
But Tinubu, who was then National Leader of defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), rejected Jonathan’s action, describing it as “a dangerous trend in the art of governance,” adding that the move had political undertone.
He stated then: “The body language of the Jonathan administration leads any keen watcher of events with unmistakable conclusion of the existence of a surreptitious, but barely disguised intention to muzzle the elected governments of these states for what is clearly a display of unpardonable mediocrity and diabolic partisanship geared towards 2015.
“Borno and Yobe states have been literally under armies of occupation, with the attendant excruciating hardship experienced daily by the indigenes and residents of these areas.
“This government now wants to use the excuse of the security challenges faced by the governors to remove them from the states considered hostile to the 2015 PDP/Jonathan project.”
Tinubu warned that the administration would be setting in motion, a chain of events, the end of which nobody could predict, saying experience has shown that actions, such as this one under consideration, often give root to radical ideologies and extremist tendencies, a direct opposite of the intended outcome of unwarranted and unintelligent meddlesomeness.
“The present scenario playing out in the country reminds one of the classical cases of a mediocre craftsman who continually blames the tools of his trade for his serial failure, but refuses to look at his pitiable state with a view to adjusting.
“It has become crystal clear, even to the most incurable optimist, that the country is adrift. That the ship of the Nigerian state is rudderless is clearly evident in the consistent and continual attacks ferociously executed by elements often referred to as the insurgents in some northern states of the federation, particularly Borno and Yobe states, respectively.
“Indeed, no part of the country is immune from the virulent, but easy attacks, veritable indices of a failing state. No governor of a state in Nigeria is indeed the Chief Security Officer. Putting the blame on the governors, who have been effectively emasculated, for the abysmal performance of the government at the centre, which controls all these security agencies, smacks of ignorance and mischief.
“This government, through acts of omission and commission, has fallen far short of expectation. It actively encourages schisms and all manner of divisive tendencies for parochial expediency. Ethnicity and religion become handy weapons of domination. Things have never been this bad.
“The President’s pronouncement, which seeks to abridge or has the potential of totally scuttling the constitutional functions of governors and other elected representatives of the people, will be counterproductive in the long run.
“…. It is a potentially a destructive path to take. If security of a society is about the protection of lives and property of the citizenry, the involvement of the people is a sine qua non to effective intelligence gathering.
“Any measures put in place, which alienate the people, in particular their elected representatives, should be considered as fundamentally defective by every right-thinking person in the country.”
