Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, reeks of political manipulation and outright bad faith.
Atiku also described the declaration of a State of Emergency in Rivers State as disgraceful, stressing that President Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent in Rivers State.
President Tinubu had in a nationwide broadcast on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Mrs Ngozi Odu and Members of the State House of Assembly for six months, while declaring a state of emergency.
In his reaction to the suspension of democratic structures in Rivers State, said that Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration either enabled or failed to prevent in Rivers State.
Atiku said: “Anyone paying attention to the unfolding crisis knows that Bola Tinubu has been a vested partisan actor in the political turmoil engulfing Rivers.
“His blatant refusal or calculated negligence in preventing this escalation is nothing short of disgraceful. Beyond the political scheming in Rivers, the brazen security breaches that led to the condemnable destruction of national infrastructure in the state land squarely on the President’s desk.
“It is an unforgivable failure that under Tinubu’s watch, the Niger Delta has been thrown back into an era of violent unrest and instability — undoing the hard-won peace secured by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s years of progress have been recklessly erased in pursuit of selfish political calculations.
“If federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President bears full responsibility. Punishing the people of Rivers State just to serve the political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms,” Atiku said.
