PDP has rejected the State of Emergency in Rivers declaration.
Epe Insights had reported earlier that the President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, declared a state of emergency in Rivers State, south-south Nigeria.
The President announced this in a nationwide broadcast on Tuesday evening, March 18, 2025, citing the political crisis and instability in the state as the reason for his decision.
President Tinubu said the governor of the State, Siminalayi Fubara; his deputy, Ngozi Odu; and all members of the Rivers assembly are “hereby suspended for an initial period of six months”.
“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 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, 18th March, 2025 and I so do,” President Tinubu said.
In the broadcast, President Tinubu announced the appointment of retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, a former chief of naval staff, as the administrator of Rivers State.
According to the broadcast, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas will be responsible for overseeing the affairs of Rivers State for at least six months.
President Tinubu said the administrator will manage the state without enacting new laws but may issue regulations subject to federal executive council approval and presidential promulgation.
The President said the judicial arm of Rivers state remains unaffected and will continue its constitutional duties.
He said his intervention, published in the federal gazette and shared with the national assembly, seeks to restore peace and order in the troubled state.
“The administrator will not make any new laws. 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,” the president said in a televised broadcast.
Displeased by the declaration, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Debo Ologunagba, said suspending an elected governor is “unconstitutional”.
“The PDP outrightly rejects this attempt by the President to override the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and undermine the votes and will of the people of Rivers State by seeking to depose a democratic government and foist an undemocratic rule in the State,” the statement reads.
The PDP Spokesperson said the appointment of an administrator to govern the state is a “clear attack on our nation’s democracy, an abrogation of the votes and democratic right of the people of Rivers State to choose their leader under the Constitution”.
“The action of Mr. President therefore clearly borders on an attempt at state capture. It is the climax of a well-oiled plot to forcefully take over Rivers State for which the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been bent on stoking crisis to ensure that democracy is ultimately truncated in the State,” Ologunagba said.
“Nigerians are invited to note that the situation in Rivers State and the reasons adduced by the President cannot justify the declaration of a state of emergency in the State under the 1999 Constitution, rendering the declaration completely incompetent.
“The PDP alerts that the unwarranted imposition of emergency rule in Rivers State is part of the larger vicious plot to foist a siege mentality across Nigeria, decimate opposition, impose a totalitarian one-Party State and turn the country into a fiefdom
“In any case, nothing in Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution relied upon by the President in the declaration grants him the exclusive powers to declare or execute the declaration of a state of emergency without recourse to the statutory approval of the National Assembly.
“Mr President should recognize that his order to an unelected individual to forthwith take over the government of Rivers State is illegal and a clear recipe for crisis, threat to the peace and stability of not only Rivers State but the entire nation.
“For emphasis, Governor Fubara was democratically elected for a tenure of four years which tenure cannot be unconstitutionally abridged.”
The PDP said Ibas not to take any “action or step which is capable of derailing smooth democratic” in Rivers state.
