By Johnbosco Agbakwuru Gift ChapiOdekina

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu, yesterday, wielded the big stick yesterday to resolve the two-year political crisis ravaging Rivers State by declaring a state of emergency.

In a 1003-word nationwide broadcast, the President suspended the governor, Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Professor Ngozi Odu, and members of the State House of Assembly for six months.

He appointed formwer Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas, retd, as administrator, and the appointment is subject to the confirmation of the National Assembly.

Vanguard exclusively reported, yesterday, that a neutral person could be appointed to administer the state as a solution to the lingering problem.

With the development, Rivers has become the sixth state, after Plateau, Ekiti, Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, to witness state of emergency since the return of democratic rule in 1999.

Also, Rivers became the third state after Plateau and Ekiti to have their governors, deputies and legislators suspended during the emergency rule.

Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states’ governors were in the saddle during the emergency rule in the three states.
Declaring the state of emergency yesterday, Tinubu said: ‘’Fellow Nigerians, I feel greatly disturbed at the turn we have come to regarding the political crisis in Rivers State. Like many of you, I have watched with concern the development, with the hope that the parties involved would allow good sense to prevail at the soonest, but all that hope burned out without any solution to the crisis.

‘’With the crisis persisting, there is no way democratic governance, which we have all fought and worked for over the years, can thrive in a way that will redound to the benefit of the good people of the state.
‘’The state has been at a standstill since the crisis started, with the good people of the state not being able to have access to the dividends of democracy.


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/03/tension-as-tinubu-declares-state-of-emergency-in-rivers/