Mr Lateef Fagbemi, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, said the declaration of state of emergency in Rivers was a “compromise” to prevent the impeachment of Gov. Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Prof. Ngozi Odu.

Fagbemi said this on Wednesday while addressing State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu.

“Don’t forget there was a notice of impeachment from the House of Assembly. If that impeachment had been allowed to take its full course, then the governor would have lost entirely and completely.

“So, in a way, if you say it’s a compromise, I will agree.

“If the impeachment process had continued, in the end would have seen both the governor and the deputy governor out of office for the remainder of the four-year term,” he said.

Fagbemi said towards the end of 2023, things had not been going on well to the extent that the governor took the law into his hands and demolished the House of Assembly building.

“Don’t forget the role of the House of Assembly.

“They are the lawmakers, they are to consider budget, they are to pass budget, they are also to be approached in matters of appointment of commissioners for ratification and all other things; they are to do oversight functions.

“Since that happened, things have not been the same at all. In a community of 32, you expect that at least 15 or 16 will be there to do the job.

“The governor constituted about three or four of the members into the House of Assembly, gave them preferential treatment and moved them to the government house to be performing legislative functions,” said the minister.

He said the situation got to the court, and that at the end of the day, the Supreme Court made very profound findings of breaches of the constitution against the governor.



https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/03/state-of-emergency-ll-prevent-fubaras-impeachment-agf-fagbemi/