Mr Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), said the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State by President Bola Tinubu was a ‘compromise’ to prevent the impeachment of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Prof. Ngozi Odu.
Fagbemi said this on Wednesday while addressing State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu.
“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,” he said.
Fagbemi said towards the end of 2023, things had not been going on well to the extent that the governor took the law into his hands and demolished the House of Assembly building.
“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.
“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,” said the minister.
He said the situation got to the court, and that at the end of the day, the Supreme Court made very profound findings of breaches of the constitution against the governor.
He said the court came to the decision that the governor had long anticipated, wrongly, that he might be impeached.
“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,” said the AGF.
He said the Supreme Court came to a decision that the behaviour of the governor was like a despot, and that there was no government in Rivers State.
“What further evidence do we need? So, the stage was set, but no action was taken immediately in the expectation or hope that good sense would prevail.
“It was expected that the governor would create an enabling environment, and that the House of Assembly too would be reasonable enough to ensure that the people of Rivers enjoyed dividends of democracy.
“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,” said Fagbemi.
He stated that a week after, the militants swung into action by vandalising pipelines, and that the governor did not come out to disown them.
“Don’t also forget that when this government came into office, Nigeria was producing about 900,000 barrels of oil a day. With the efforts and the ingenuity that the President had, he ensured that the production rose to about 1.5 million barrel per day.
“That’s about 45 per cent increase. Governors were smiling home at the end of the month with about 60 per cent increase in their take home to their various states.
“Then somebody rose or encouraged or became inactive when he was supposed to act. There was not a word dissuading the militants who issued the threat,” said Fagbemi.
He said Nigeria still relied largely on oil, and for anyone to touch the oil pipelines, he must be viewed not only as an enemy of Rivers, but an enemy of Nigeria.
“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,” he said.
