Rivers Emergency Rule: Group Seeks Expedite Action On PDP Govs’ Petition

A pressure group named Advocates for Democratic Nigeria (AfDN) has urged the Supreme Court to expedite action on the petition filed by the PDP Governors Forum on the emergency rule declared by President Bola Tinubu in Rivers State.

The group’s publicity secretary, Comrade Kazeem Idris, said it is aware that the plaintiffs have approached the apex court and are asking for a date to be set aside for the commencement of hearing on the matter.

He said it was on this basis that the group was urging the court to expedite action by granting the prayers of the plaintiff.

Idris, in a statement, said: “We understand that the plaintiffs – Governors of Adamawa, Enugu, Osun, Oyo, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom, Plateau, Delta, Taraba, Zamfara and Bayelsa states based their summons on the eight grounds contained in the suit marked SC/CV/329/2025; where they want the Supreme Court to determine whether the President has the constitutional authority to suspend a democratically-elected structure in any state in Nigeria and whether President Tinubu’s state of emergency in Rivers State was not in negation of the 1999 Constitution.

“It is on this premise that we call on the apex court to hasten the process of properly interpreting the provisions of Sections 1(2), 5(2), 176, 180, 188, and 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, to determine whether the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can lawfully suspend or in any manner interfere with the offices of a Governor and Deputy Governor of any of the 36 component states of the Federation, and replace them with his own unelected nominee as a Sole Administrator under the guise of, or pursuant to, a Proclamation of a State of Emergency,” he said.