President Tinubu, Others Dragged to Court Over Rivers State Emergency Rule [PHOTOS]

President Bola Tinubu, along with other government officials, has been taken to court over the recent declaration of emergency rule in Rivers State.

The lawsuit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, is challenging the president’s decision to suspend the state’s elected leaders and appoint a sole administrator.

The legal action follows President Tinubu’s suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, Deputy Governor Ngozi Odu, and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly on Tuesday. In their place, he appointed retired Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, as the state’s sole administrator.

Lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly ratified the emergency rule on Thursday. 

The case was filed by lawyer Daniel Wariboko, representing himself and other registered voters in Rivers State. It raises several legal questions, including whether a dispute between a governor and the state assembly justifies declaring a state of emergency under Nigeria’s Constitution, whether the president has the power to suspend an elected government in any state, whether the appointment of a sole administrator is legal when an elected governor and legislators are still in office, whether the emergency rule declared on March 18, 2025, is unconstitutional, whether the suspension of elected officials violates the rights of Rivers State citizens under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and whether the National Assembly had the authority to approve the president’s suspension of the state government. 

Wariboko and the other plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the emergency rule in Rivers State unconstitutional, null, and void, reinstate Governor Fubara, his deputy, and the state legislators, stop the president from appointing a sole administrator for any state, prevent the National Assembly from approving such suspensions in the future, and restore democracy in Rivers State.