President Bola Tinubu met with retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Étè Ibas at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, a day after appointing him as the sole administrator of Rivers State.
Persecondnews reports that the meeting was likely a briefing on Ibas’ new role, which comes after Tinubu declared a state of emergency in Rivers State due to prolonged political instability, constitutional breaches, and security threats.
Ibas, who served as Nigeria’s Chief of Naval Staff from 2015 to 2021, arrived at the Presidential Villa at around 12:48 pm.
The state of emergency was declared due to a power struggle between Gov. Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
As a result, Tinubu suspended Fubara, his deputy Ngozi Odu, and all elected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly for an initial period of six months.
“In the circumstance, having soberly reflected on and evaluated the political situation in Rivers State, the governor and deputy governor of Rivers State have failed to make a request to me as President to issue this proclamation as required by section 305(5) of the 1999 Constitution as amended,” Tinubu said in a national broadcast.
“It has become inevitably compelling for me to invoke the provision of section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State.”
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