Tinubu Has No Constitutional Power To Suspend Fubara – Inibehe Effiong

Popular Nigerian lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, has reacted to President Bola Tinubu’s suspension of Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.

Naija News reported earlier that President Tinubu, in a nationwide broadcast on Tuesday, suspended Governor Fubara and Deputy Governor Ngozi Odu for six months while declaring a state of emergency.

This development has caused mixed reactions on and off the media as Nigerians air their opinions on the lingering political crisis in Rivers State.

Reacting in a post via his official 𝕏 handle, Effiong said the President has no constitutional right to suspend the Governor, his deputy and members of the state house of assembly.

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“President Tinubu has no constitutional authority or power to suspend the Governor of Rivers State and the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

“The emergency powers under the 1999 Constitution does not give such powers to the President.

“I will respond more elaborately later,” the legal practitioner wrote on social media on Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has lambasted President Tinubu for declaring a State of Emergency in Rivers State.

In a statement on Tuesday night, Atiku described Tinubu’s declaration as disgraceful.

He said Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent in Rivers State.

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Atiku said: “The declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State reeks of political manipulation and outright bad faith.

“Anyone paying attention to the unfolding crisis knows that Bola Tinubu has been a vested partisan actor in the political turmoil engulfing Rivers. His blatant refusal or calculated negligence in preventing this escalation is nothing short of disgraceful.

“Beyond the political scheming in Rivers, the brazen security breaches that led to the condemnable destruction of national infrastructure in the state land squarely on the President’s desk.

“Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent.

“It is an unforgivable failure that under Tinubu’s watch, the Niger Delta has been thrown back into an era of violent unrest and instability — undoing the hard-won peace secured by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Years of progress have been recklessly erased in pursuit of selfish political calculations.

“If federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President bears full responsibility. Punishing the people of Rivers State just to serve the political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms.”