President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was dragged before the Community Court of Justice of the ECOWAS Court sitting in Abuja, on account of the declaration of a state of emergency and the consequent suspension of democratically elected authorities in Rivers State.
The matter was contained in the suit dated March 20, 2025, marked ECW/CCJ/APP/18/25.
The applicants, Harry Ibiso and 11 other persons, representing themselves and the Eastern Zone of the Ijaw Youth Council, are demanding an order from the court to set aside and/or quash the suspension of elected officials and the removal of democratic structures and institutions in Rivers State as a precondition for the proper application of a full-blown democratic order.
In that suit, the plaintiffs also seek to obtain an order from the court setting aside any and all decisions, actions, policies, and directives made or issued by the Sole Administrator, retired Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas, appointed on March 18 by the respondent’s president.
The appellants stated in the application based on Articles III and IV of the supplementary protocol amending ECOWAS Court’s protocol, Article II of the Protocol of the court, and Article 33 of the Rules of the court that the respondent’s president (President Bola Ahmed Tinubu), being elected into political office, had no powers to remove or suspend a governor of a state, who was also elected into office.
The applicants and the inhabitants of Rivers State hold that their fundamental rights were breached when the removal of governor Siminalayi Fubara, the deputy governor Ngozi Odu, and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly took place.
Accordingly, the defendant has in so doing unlawfully robbed the applicants and the whole population of Rivers State of their democratic rights, acting both individually and in aggregate.
It must therefore follow that the applicants and the citizens of Rivers State are stripped of their existence and dignity as human beings. Political disenfranchisement by the loss of values that accompany democratic governance has also robbed them of leadership chosen through an electoral process.
It follows that, a state of emergency cannot act as a camouflage or subterfuge for the taking over of the executive powers of the governor or the exercise of law powers of the legislature,” the applicants held.
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President Tinubu on March 18 unwound the state of emergency in Rivers State.
On Thursday, the National Assembly approved Tinubu’s state of emergency declaration in Rivers State despite the uproar from the opposition leaders. The sole administrator for Rivers, Vice Admiral Ibas, has since resumed office.
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