The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has charged President Bola Tinubu to harken to what it called the truth expressed by Vice President Kashim Shettima about the “illegality” over the suspension of Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
The party stated this while dismissing the Presidency’s clarification on Shettima’s remarks that the president does not have the power to remove an elected governor, dismissing it as “a mere attempt at political correctness.”
Interim National Publicity Secretary of ADC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, in a statement, said “the truth must not be lost in the fog of political correctness.”
Abdullahi said the Vice-President needs to stand by his forthright and courageous statement, affirming that the President lacks constitutional power to remove an elected councilor, not to talk of a sitting governor.
ADC said the simple truth, which is anchored in the Nigerian Constitution, must not be lost in the fog of political correctness currently emanating from Aso Rock.
The opposition party said what made an elected governor’s removal wrong and unconstitutional under President Goodluck Jonathan in the case of Borno State, also makes it wrong and unconstitutional under President Tinubu in the case of Rivers State.
“The only thing that has changed is that while one president held the constitution as sacrosanct and inviolable, another feels it could be manipulated to suit narrow political interests,” Abdullahi said.
He further said the Vice President, in recounting his ordeal under the Jonathan administration reminded Nigerians that when the idea of removing him as Borno State Governor was floated, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal told the former President that he had no power to remove even an elected councilor.
“According to Vice President Shettima, Tambuwal’s position was reaffirmed by the Attorney General at the time, Mohammed Bello Adoke, who also told President Jonathan that the President of Nigeria does not have the power under the constitution to remove an elected governor from office.
“This is not just history. It is precedent. But unlike Jonathan, who has been widely acclaimed as a respecter of the law, President Tinubu chose to disregard the very laws he swore to uphold and tread the path of unconstitutionality in Rivers State,” he said.
Abdullahi added that suspension of a duly elected governor was not just unconstitutional but also authoritarian, and a dangerous precedent, if allowed to persist even for a single more day.
ADC added that, “Nigeria is not a monarchy. The powers of the President are not absolute. They are bounded by law, tempered by precedent, and subject to public accountability.
“For avoidance of doubts, the breakdown of law and order that the presidency has deployed as pretext to overthrow democratic order in Rivers State is nothing compared with the rampaging scourge of Boko Haram that abducted more than 200 school girls in Chibok, Borno State, slaughtered school boys in Buni Yadi, Yobe State and challenged the very sovereignty of Nigeria.
“Yet, in declaring a state of emergency in the affected states under these dire circumstances, President Jonathan recognised the limits of his constitutional powers and he respected it,” he said.
The coalition party said that was the truth that the Vice President reminded Nigerians about at the book launch of former Attorney General, Mohammed Bello Adoke, on Thursday.
“It was not faux pas, it was not Freudian slip, it was the truth anchored on the facts of history.
“In this regard, the ADC therefore calls on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately restore democratic governance in Rivers State, cease all illegal interference in the affairs of the state, and halt the unconstitutional actions that have upended democratic rule in that state.
“We further demand that the President tenders an unreserved apology to the Nigerian people for this abuse of power and the blatant disregard for constitutional order that has played out under his watch,” Abdullahi said.
The ADC said it will continue to stand with the Nigerian people in defence of democracy, justice, and constitutionalism.
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