The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), says the declaration of state of emergency in Rivers State was a “compromise” to prevent the impeachment of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Prof. Ngozi Odu.
Fagbemi said this while addressing State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday, March 19, 2025.
The AGF said: “Don’t forget there was a notice of impeachment from the House of Assembly. If that impeachment had been allowed to take its full course, then the governor would have lost entirely and completely.
“So, in a way, if you say it’s a compromise, I will agree.
“If the impeachment process had continued, in the end would have seen both the governor and the deputy governor out of office for the remainder of the four-year term.”
Fagbemi stated that towards the end of 2023, things had not been going on well to the extent that Fubara took the law into his hands and demolished the Rivers State House of Assembly building.
He added: “Don’t forget the role of the House of Assembly.
“They are the lawmakers, they are to consider budget, they are to pass budget, they are also to be approached in matters of appointment of commissioners for ratification and all other things; they are to do oversight functions.
“Since that happened, things have not been the same at all. In a community of 32, you expect that at least 15 or 16 will be there to do the job.
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“The governor constituted about three or four of the members into the House of Assembly, gave them preferential treatment and moved them to the government house to be performing legislative functions.”
The AGF said the situation got to the court, and that at the end of the day, the Supreme Court made profound findings of breaches of the constitution against Fubara.
Fagbemi said the court came to the decision that the governor had long anticipated, wrongly, that he might be impeached.
Fagbemi said: “He knew that the House of Assembly is a critical organ to do that, so he brought down the House of Assembly.
“There was no effort to rebuild the House of Assembly after 14 months. The government stands on a tripod: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
“He made the functioning of government impossible. It is not enough for the executive to say we are spending money. Even the money you want to spend must have been appropriated for by the House of Assembly.
“We are in a democracy. There was, what I would call telegraphing of the militants by the governor, and the reason I said so was when he beckoned to them that he would let them know when it was time to act.”
Fagbemi stated that a week after, the militants swung into action by vandalising pipelines, adding that Fubara did not disown the militants.
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The AGF said the Nigeria still rely largely on oil, and for anyone to touch the oil pipelines, he must be viewed not only as an enemy of Rivers State, but an enemy of Nigeria.
He said: “All the 36 states share what comes in from the production of oil. And I believe that the decision of Mr President is anchored on the decision of the Supreme Court.
“The second one is the inability of those involved, both the House of Assembly and the governor, from being able to create an enabling environment for the people of rivers to enjoy the dividends of democracy.
“Then the security situation in that place. If he had waited maybe a day longer, only God knows what would have followed.”
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