Reactions have started trailing the declaration of State of Emergency in Rivers State, by President Bola Tinubu, as the Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, has called on him to rescind the decision in the best interest of the nation.
It also called on the National Assembly to reverse the state of emergency declaration as a safety gap to avert the conspiracy of undemocratic elements in the country.
The CLO, in a press statement signed by its Executive Director, Steve Aluko, made available to journalists in Jos, the Plateau State Capital, said the action of the President offends all judicial pronouncement of the Supreme Court.
It reads: “The Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, condemn in strong terms the declaration of state of emergency in Rivers State, because it is an avoidable contraption if all the parties have acted correctly, timely and promptly.
“It is on record that like the declaration of state emergency in Plateau State under former governor Joshua Dariye, under the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo, same under President Bola Tinubu is inconsistent with the letter, intents and spirit of the Nigerian constitution.
“It also offends all indices of democratic governance as celebrated in the recent local government autonomy judgement made by the Supreme Court to the effect that undemocratic practice is illogical, illegitimate and autocratic under a dispensation of civil democracy.”
According to him, “If the President and the Minister of FCT have acted in good fate, the government and the people of Rivers State will not have been held in this iniquitous quagmire.
“We, therefore, call on the president to rescind this decision in the best interest of our constitution and practice of democracy.
“The full return to the sanctity of votes and democratic governance remains the most civil to resolving the issue, else it can be summed, captured-democracy and clear signs of endangered democratic ideals.”
“We call on the National Assembly to disapprove and reverse the State of emergency declaration”, he stressed.
DAILYPOST recalls that President Bola Tinubu had declared a state of emergency in Rivers State, and suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara, the Deputy Governor, Ngozi Odua and all elected lawmakers of the state House of Assembly for an initial period of six months.
State of Emergency: CLO urges NASS to stop Tinubu
