By Suleiman Anyalewechi
“Niger Delta will punish you in 2027 over Rivers State” – Buhari’s former Aide, Lauretta Onochie to Tinubu
The opposition Coalition platform the African Democratic Congress, ADC, has expressed dismay over the attempt by President Bola Tinubu to disguise “political brinkmanship as statesmanship.”
This is as the party insisted that the President’s misadventure in Rivers State, as examplified by the needles declaration of state of emergency ,will certainly define his political legacy.
In like manner, a former Aide to late President Muhammadu Buhari, Lauretta Onochie, assured President Tinubu that come 2027, when he would seek reelection, he would be punished by the Niger Delta over Rivers State.
Onochie, in a post on her X page said President Tinubu must face the consequences of what she described as the lawlessness he imposed on Rivers State.
Reacting to the lifting of the State of Emergency on Wednesday by Tinubu, Onochie said: “Tinubu never thought that the 6 months of hell he illegally and unconstitutionally imposed on Rivers State will come to an end.
”That lawlessness will be punished in 2027 by Niger Deltans. We are set.”
The ADC, in a statement issued by its spokesperson Bolaji Abdullahi, on Thursday September, 18 2025, strongly condemned what it described as the “cavalier manner in which the Rivers State Governor ,Sir Siminalayi Fubara, his Deputy and members of the state House of Assembly were suspended and reinstated by the President.”
The Source reports that the President, in a statement on Wednesday, announced the return of the Governor and the State Lawmakers after lifting the six-month emergency rule he declared in the State on March 18, 2025.
The ADC noted that no amount of clothing of the emergency rule declaration by the president will cover the sinister agenda that gave birth to the entire charade.
Following is the full text of the ADC’s statement
“On Wednesday, September 17, Nigerians witnessed a curious spectacle: President Tinubu directing the Governor, Deputy Governor, and members of the State Assembly in Rivers State to ‘resume’ duties after serving his six-month suspension from office.
“The President’s decision to arrogate to himself the power to suspend and recall elected officials in Rivers State, as he has done, is whimsically autocratic and should be recognised and condemned as a threat to our democracy.
“The African Democratic Congress (ADC) reiterates that what has happened in Rivers State over the last six months is a brazen manipulation of constitutional provisions to serve narrow political interests.
“We harbour no doubts that the situation that served as the pretext for declaring the state of emergency was a clear act of political contrivance that only required the President’s unbiased intervention. Instead, the President chose to serve the will of demagogues in his government, deploying constitutional powers to attack what he should have protected.
“For six long months, the will of the people of Rivers State was set aside. Their elected leaders were, in effect, suspended — not by a court of law, but by a President who himself was elected. Now, with the wave of a hand and the stroke of his pen, the same President has decided to ‘allow’ other duly elected officials back to work, as though they were his political appointees.
“Let us be clear: Governors and legislators in a democracy do not derive their legitimacy from Aso Rock. They derive it from the people who elected them. Only a competent Court can remove or restrain them — not a press statement or Presidential proclamation. The President is not a Headmaster, and Governors are not his pupils to be sent home and recalled at his discretion. Yet, we recall that this President once claimed to be a federalist who, as a State Governor, fought to protect the autonomy of his state.
“However, with this action, the President and his men have achieved their goals — and that goal was not to ‘restore peace’ to Rivers State. They now have a thoroughly pacified Government in Rivers State, which has learnt its hard lesson: that its primary loyalty is not to the people of Rivers State, but to Abuja. More importantly, the Rivers experience now serves as a clear warning to other State Governments across the country to ‘behave themselves.’
“In keeping with their well-worn propaganda, Presidential Aides announced that the President had cut short his vacation to attend to the worsening security situation in the country. This claim is laughable. It is now clear that the President did not return because Nigerians are being killed, or because life has become unbearable for the majority. He returned for one reason only — to personally oversee the return of Fubara to office and bask in the glory of the dictatorial powers he had assumed for himself.
“By removing a sitting governor and now personally directing his return, the message could not be clearer: ‘I removed you, and I alone can bring you back.’ This was not about law, justice, or governance. It was about control. It was about reinforcing the idea that, in today’s Nigeria, institutions may exist, but they remain subordinate to the will of one man.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Section 305 of our Constitution — which provides for emergency powers — was never intended to be used as a tool for settling political scores or exerting unconstitutional control over a state. It exists for moments of genuine public danger, such as floods, epidemics, or insurrections, not for political convenience.
“The ADC, therefore, calls on the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court of Nigeria, to take a clear position on this matter, which has set a dangerous precedent. In moments like this, the judiciary cannot maintain silent indifference, or history will record them as collaborators in the subversion of our democracy”
The House of Assembly resumed on Thursday, September 18. At the time of filing this report, no news of Governor Fubara’s presence in Rivers State has been heard or reported.
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