Legal practitioner, Liborous Oshoma, has stated that President Bola Tinubu could have acted differently without having to suspend Governor Siminalayi Fubara following the crisis in Rivers State.
Oshoma maintained that Tinubu could have declared the emergency without sacking elected officials.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today shortly after President Tinubu lifted the emergency rule on Wednesday, Oshoma argued that the declaration was unfair and unnecessary.
“The President can declare a state of emergency in Rivers without having to sack the duly elected government in that state. You can still deploy police, DSS, Army to the state to maintain peace without having to sack a democratically elected government,” he said.
He added that the crisis in Rivers was not peculiar, stressing that similar disputes exist in other states.
“The crisis in Rivers State is not different from the crisis we see across the board politically. It is just that of Rivers State was so heightened to the extent that you have House of Assembly members that the governor did not allow to sit,” Oshoma noted.
Speaking further, he said political actors have failed to learn any lessons from the six-month suspension of democratic governance in Rivers State.
“I do not think the politicians have learnt anything. Today, we have seen it happen in a PDP state because you have a former governor who has one leg in the PDP and one leg in the APC, and so it is easy,” Oshoma said.
Naija News recalls that on March 18, Tinubu suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Ngozi Odu, and the Rivers State House of Assembly members, citing political infighting that had crippled the legislature.
He appointed retired Naval Vice-Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas as administrator of the state, invoking Section 305(5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The declaration was condemned by many concerned Nigerians as unconstitutional and described by critics as a power grab.
Oshoma further argued that the decision exposed partisan bias.
“One would have expected that if this had happened in an APC state where you have this seemingly crisis between the House of Assembly and the governor, and we see a state of emergency, then I will say there is fairness across board,” he said.
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