ATIKU, EL-RUFAI, OTHERS ADDRESS JOINT NEWS BRIEFING ON STATE OF EMERGENCY IN RIVERS STATE
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain and former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has joined ranks with other opposition leaders to kick against the declaration of state of emergency in Rivers State by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Alhaji Atiku addressed the press in Abuja, flanked by former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who recently dumped the governing All Progressives Congress for the Social Democratic Party, and Labour Party’s Yunusa Tanko, among others.
In a text of the press briefing obtained by newstrendsng.com, Atiku Abubakar and the other opposition leaders said that the state of emergency in Rivers State and the suspension of the Governor, Deputy Governor, and the State House of Assembly was unlawful.
The aggrieved politicians said it was a clear attempt to subvert democracy and impose federal control over a duly elected state government, which should be strongly condemned, as they urged all Nigerians of good conscience to resist what they see as a brazen assault on constitutional governance.
The group further noted that President Tinubu in his broadcast to the nation of March 18 betrayed his bias in the Rivers State political crisis, and by so doing, “dragged himself and his highly exalted office into the arena of the political brawl, thereby denigrating his high office through inelegant language, predisposed excessiveness and malignant deportment.”
Therefore, Atiku Abubakar and those with him made a set of demands to the President, including the immediate reversal of the emergency proclamation and reinstatement of the Rivers State Governor, Deputy Governor, and members of the House of Assembly.
They also called on the National Assembly to reject the emergency rule in Rivers State and for the judiciary to intervene swiftly in striking down the proclamation, saying it sets a dangerous precedent that could be used to arbitrarily remove any governor in the future.
They reminded the public that a peaceful Niger Delta was critical to the economic health and stability of Nigeria, just as the cautioned the Federal Government against manufacturing political crises that could disrupt this fragile stability.