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Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has come under attack from some prominent Nigerians over his announcement of the suspension of emergency rule in Rivers State.
The minister, it would be recalled, said the emergency rule declared in Rivers State would be lifted on September 18, following which, he has been slammed as the stakeholders questioned his right to make the announcement as he is neither the president nor the presidential spokesperson.
Former Presidential Advisory Committee Chairman on Anti-Corruption, Professor Itse Sagay, while reacting to the development, said even if President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had disclosed the decision to suspend the emergency rule in Rivers State, the minister has no legal right to make the pronouncement as he is neither the president nor his spokesperson.
Professor Sagay noted that what Wike is doing is improper and does not sit well, noting that Wike is a minister only.
“He has no authority to do all that. Nothing legally connects him now to River State except that he’s a citizen who has one vote like every other person. So what he’s doing is improper in the extreme,” Sagay said.
On what the emergency rule portends for the state going forward, the legal luminary noted that certain matters are at the Supreme Court, saying there is no need preempting issues now
“We cannot really interpret the legal effect of anything being done now or what the situation until we get what the Supreme Court’s interpretation is. Nigerians should wait for now until then,” he said.
While also speaking on the matter, Chief Chekwas Okorie, the founder of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the party’s former national chairman, said what the minister had done has shown that both him and the president are on the same page in everything happening in Rivers State.
Chief Okorie noted that based on the development, “There are no discerning person that is in doubt that the president and Wike are on the same page in the matter of River State,” he said.
“And the president, unfortunately, seems to be the one playing Wike’s script. And so if Wike goes in advance to say what the president hasn’t even said with regard to the actual date that the emergency rule will end, somebody like me wouldn’t be surprised.
“But the president should be embarrassed that Wike is not even protecting the secret understanding they seem to have sometimes by doing this. There’s nothing he has hidden. For the people of Rivers State, I have my pity for them, especially their leaders who seem to be very toothless in this matter.
“Our judiciary has not been helpful, and so that has made the Rivers people very much helpless. I wonder, the kind of governor that Fubara will be this time in this second coming.
“But be that as it may, we know that 2027 is not far off. And if Fubara decides to end his tenure in a manner that exposes his inherent weakness up to the level of being mocked, a level of mockery, that is his own cup of tea.
“But as I said, my sympathy goes to the people of the Rivers State who appear completely helpless and at the mercy of Wike. Is it not embarrassing? Does it not even say anything about the unholy alliance between Wike and the president that APC will win the majority of the seats in the Rivers State, leaving a few seats to the PDP, including Wike’s place in order not to be seen that he lost in his domain, that’s his word, considering that he’s still pretending to be a member of the PDP.
“And the PDP again seems totally helpless in the matter of Wike. They don’t seem to have any answer to, I’ve never seen this type of thing before. I’ve never even seen it in a small party, not to talk of a party that was precisely over the face of Nigeria for 16 good years unbroken.”
On his own, former chairman of the PDP in Lagos State, now a member of the coalition African Democratic Alliance (ADC), captain Tunji Shelle, said for Wike to announce the date of end to the emergency rule showed that he is now the Lord of Manor.
“He has now become the Lord of the Manor. He knows everything, he knows it all. He’s a kingmaker, he’s the one and only one who can say and it will happen,” Shelle said.
“He holds the judiciary in the jugular. He holds the office in Abuja as if he is the best man who can do the job. So I always advise that he should just face his job as the Federal Capital Territory Minister. All these ones are distractions. Distraction for the people of Rivers State, distraction for Nigerians and distraction for everyone concerned in policy.
“Through this, I can tell you that democracy is being threatened by him.
“It is now obvious that Wike called for the emergency rule and he got it, he is now telling us when it would end, are Nigerians not adding things together to understand where this is coming from,” he asked rhetorically.
While responding to our correspondent, Professor Paul Ananaba, a Senior Advocate of Nigerian (SAN) and president of Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL), a section of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) dedicated to promoting the rule of law, human rights, and constitutionalism in Nigeria, said he won’t comment on the issue as the legal body (NBA) would be approaching the court over what he isad are infractions and constitutional breaches in Rivers State.
“NBA plans to go to court over issues in Rivers State, so I won’t comment on anything concerning the state now,” he told our correspondent.