By Tonia Okereke
Nigeria’s Opposition coalition(CUPP) Coalition of United Political Parties after an emergency meeting has said that nothing warranted the declaration of State of emergency on Rivers State, suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his Deputy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
CUPP in a statement issued on Tuesday vowed to seek legal action to quash what it described as “this latest assault on Nigeria Constitutional democracy that has great implications for the survival of democratic governance in Nigeria” .
Tinubu had on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in Rivers State following the protracted political crisis in the state. He made the proclamation during a nationwide broadcast, suspending Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy and all the members of the House of Assembly for six months in the first instance.
Reacting to the development, the coalition in a statement jointly signed by CUPP leaders High Chief Peter Ameh, Ikenga Imo ugochinyere and Comrade Mark Adebayo described the suspension as unacceptable and a democratic coup against the Rivers people in favour of dark ambition of greedy desperados.
The coalition recalled that when President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States in May 2013 he rejected the illegal advice of some power mongers to remove the elected governors and dissolve other democratic structures in the affected states.
Citing some constitutional provisions, the coalition stated that state governments do not answer to the Federal government as they are separate and the President has authority over federal employees and no other.
The coalition warned that allowing this unlawful suspension sets a precedent for a dictatorship masked as democracy, adding that usurping national assembly powers to take over powers of state assembly and giving it to federal executive Council is a coup against democracy.
The statement reads, “The suspension of a sitting Governor under the guise of a state of emergency is an illegal and unconstitutional act, amounting to a coup against democracy. This move serves the dark ambitions of desperate political actors and undermines the sovereignty of the Nigerian people.
“Since the Supreme Court ruling, Governor Fubara has tried to act right but these guys the local political blackmailers and propagandist, keep suffering Rivers state. The governor compiled and presented the budget and they ran away from receiving him meaning their interest is not the budget but to ensure the people of Rivers their own people suffer and die from hunger.
“The Governor wrote another letter to them and they claimed to have gone on recess on Friday evening and now suddenly the people who went on recess on Friday wakes up on Monday to claim they have commenced a purported impeachment, just to distract the slated budget presentation billed for this week. With this declaration the Federal Government and its political allies have systematically undermined the peace in Rivers State”.
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