Rivers’ Emergency Rule: Group charges Supreme Court to expedite action on PDP Governors’ petition

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

A pressure group, under the aegis of Advocates for Democratic Nigeria (AfDN) has charged the Supreme Court to expedite action on the petition filed by the PDP Governors on the declaration of emergency rule by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Rivers State.

The group, in statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Comrade Kazeem Idris, said it is aware that the plaintiffs have approached the apex court and is asking for a date to be set aside for the commencement of hearing on the matter, and on this basis it is urging the court to expedite action by granting the prayers of the plaintiff without any form of delay.

The statement added that there is an urgent need for the court to grant the prayers of the PDP Governors by reversing the declaration of the state of emergency made by President Tinubu in the midst of the crises in Rivers State which got heightened by the suspension of the elected governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy.

The statement said: ‘We understand that the plaintiffs – Governors of Adamawa, Enugu, Osun, Oyo, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom, Plateau, Delta, Taraba, Zamfara and Bayelsa states based their summons on the eight grounds contained in the suit marked SC/CV/329/2025; where they want the Supreme Court to determine whether the President has the constitutional authority to suspend a democratically-elected structure in any state in Nigeria and whether President Tinubu’s state of emergency in Rivers State was not in negation of the 1999 Constitution’.

“It is on this premise that we call on the apex court to hasten the process of properly interpreting the provisions of Sections 1(2), 5(2), 176, 180, 188, and 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, to determine whether the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can lawfully suspend or in any manner interfere with the offices of a Governor and Deputy Governor of any of the 36 component states of the Federation, and replace them with his own unelected nominee as a Sole Administrator under the guise of, or pursuant to, a Proclamation of a State of Emergency.