Emergency Rule: Lawyers Protest in Abuja, Call for Fubara’s Reinstatement as Rivers Governor
Under the aegis of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy, a group of attorneys has staged a protest in Abuja, calling for the reinstatement of democratic administration in Rivers State and the recall of Governor Siminalayi Fubara from his suspension.
The group has also urged the international community and the United States to put pressure on President Bola Tinubu to reverse his decision to suspend Governor Fubara and the House of Assembly of Rivers State.
President Tinubu’s proclamation of a state of emergency in Rivers State “is unconstitutional and undermines democracy,” according to Barr. Uchechukwu Udeh, Country Director, Lawyers in Defence of Democracy.
The organization wrote to President Donald Trump, pleading with him to step in and exert pressure on the Nigerian government to bring democracy back to Rivers State.
They contended that the state legislature and Governor Fubara’s suspension is an egregious attempt to subvert constitutional order.
The organization asserted that due procedure was not followed and that President Tinubu’s action was obviously hurried.
The lawyers also called the National Assembly’s ratification of the President’s decision an aberration of democracy and denounced it.
As a result, the group called on President Tinubu to change his mind and permit Governor Fubara to carry on serving as the state’s lawfully elected governor.
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“We have found ourselves at a crossroads, a sober moment of reckoning where constitutional order is being tested most brazenly in an era where democracy is supposed to reign supreme and provide democracy dividends to the masses.”
The suspension of a democratically elected governor, deputy governor, and full State House of Assembly on the pretext of emergency rule is an unprecedented and illegal move by the President, who vowed to defend the Nigerian Constitution.
What’s the emergency? According to the letter, Nigerians and Rivers people did not see or experience any such emergency.
“No constitutional clause, law, or established convention grants the president the authority to unilaterally disband the institutions of an elected state government, and we stand by this.
We are not firmly under the control of a military dictatorship, yet this could only have occurred during the era of military juntas.
“The president ought to have let the other branches of government handle the problems. The fact that Osun State’s local government administration problem up until recently did not result in a state of emergency proclamation is not noteworthy.
Currently, a constitutional democracy with a presidential form of government is in place inside the nation.
The Lawyers in Defence of Democracy said that since democracy is a learning process and the judiciary has proven its competence to settle disputes, President Tinubu shouldn’t have made the judgment. END.
