Ebun Adegboruwa has described the suspension of Governor Siminalaye Fubara of Rivers state and the declaration of Emergency Rule in the oil bearing state as a bad omen for the country. The senior advocate of Nigeria, SAN, made the admonition on Thursday on Channels Television as gloom hovers on the restive state following the suspension of the governor and the the state House of Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The president had on Tuesday declared a State of Emergency on the state, following which he also removed the governor and the lawmakers, saying is action was last potion after the feuding parties in the political crisis failed to come to a truce.
Tinubu had since appointed Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibaz (rtd.) a former Chief of Naval Staff as the Administrator to oversee the state for a period of six months.
Recall that Governor Fubara and his estranged political godfather have face off for months over who controls the power levers in the state.
The president’s decision has however been trailed with mixed reactions, by some who criticised him for lacking powers to remove a sitting governor, and others who insist that the president needed act to forestall total breakdown of law and order.
For instance, Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 Presidential candidate of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, have trenchantly knocked the president for the declaration of a state of Emergency.
The Nigerian Bar Association has also berated the president for sacking the democratically elected officials in the state, stating that he misused his powers under the 1999 Constitution which President Tinubu cited for suspending the governor and the lawmakers.
According to Adegboruwa, Tinubu has acted like a ‘presidential dictator’ in his decision to sack the democratic institutions in the state, describing the action as illegal and unconstitutional, that must not be allowed to stand.
The senior lawyer spoke few hours before the National Assembly meet to debate on whether to uphold the president’s decision. The president’s decision is subject to the approval of the NASS.
The law requires two-third members of the Nigerian Senate and House of Representatives to support the president’s action before it can take effect.
Adegboruwa, has however appealed to the NASS to reject President’s decision to remove the governor and the state lawmakers, saying the situation in the state has not resulted to ‘total helplessness’ that required extra-ordinary measures such as the declaration of state of Emergency, adding that other dispute resolution methods have yet to be exhausted by the president.
According to him, the state cannot be an exception after the president failed to take similar measures in Lagos and Osun states which have experienced similar political turmoil lately.
He urged President Tinubu ‘to engage with the people of’ the state, saying nothing can ‘justify’ the sacking of Governor Fubara, adding that the president’s action paints a gloomy picture for the nation’s fledgling democracy.
Tinubu, he affirmed, is fact becoming a presidential dictator.
Meanwhile, a coalition of key opposition leaders such as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Governor Nasir El Rufai met on Thursday in Abuja, the nation’s capital rejecting the State of Emergency imposed on Rivers state.
They called on the president to reverse the action with immediate effect, in other not to further heat up the system.
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