Atiku Blasts President Tinubu For Declaring State Of Emergency In Rivers

TUESDAY March 18, 2025 |TheNewsDESK

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has lambasted President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for declaring a State of Emergency in Rivers State.

President Tinubu had in a nationwide broadcast suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara and Deputy Governor Ngozi Odu for six months, while declaring a state of emergency.

Reacting in a statement on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 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.

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.”