State Of Emergency: Tinubu And His Backers Cannot Import What Is Not In The Constitution – Femi Falana

Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana has called on Nigerians to resist President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State.

He argued that Tinubu violated the country’s constitution, insisting that the President has no right under the 1999 Constitution as amended, to suspend or remove the governor, his deputy and the House of Assembly members.

Speaking in a virtual interaction with some Nigerians in the Diaspora on Saturday night, Falana asserted that that even if the Constitution allows the president to employ “extraordinary measures” in sub section 3, to address threat to the country, that “does not require him to suspend or remove elected officials in the state. “

According to Falana, Section 305 of the Constitution provides that “(1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution the president may by instrument published in the official Gazette of the Government of the Federation issue a proclamation of a state of emergency in the Federation or any part thereof.”

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He added that, “there is no such provision in the constitution and the president and his backers cannot import what is not in the constitution.”

In the virtual conference, co-hosted by foremost columnist, Farooq Kperogi, Moses Ochonu and Osmond Agba, the Lagos-based human rights lawyer also scolded the National Assembly for approving the suspension of democratic structures in the beleaguered state with a voice vote, suggesting that the haste, with which the legislators endorsed the proclamation without thorough scrutiny, was replete with partisan politics.