Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has berated President Bola Tinubu for declaring a state of emergency in Rivers State following a lingering and unresolved political crisis that led to the bombing of oil facilities in Rivers.
Atiku who reacted in a statement, noted that the declaration is a political manipulation, carried out in bad faith.
He said President Bola Tinubu cannot absorb itself from the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent in Rivers State.
Atiku argued that political disputes should be resolved through democratic means, not by forceful interventions that undermine elected leadership.
He called on Nigerians, civil society organizations, and the international community to reject what he described as an attempt to silence opposition and destabilize the rule of law.
The statement reads, “The declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State reeks of political manipulation and outright bad faith.”
“Anyone paying attention to the unfolding crisis knows that Bola Tinubu has been a vested partisan actor in the political turmoil engulfing Rivers. His blatant refusal — or calculated negligence — in preventing this escalation is nothing short of disgraceful.”
“Beyond the political scheming in Rivers, the brazen security breaches that led to the condemnable destruction of national infrastructure in the state land squarely on the President’s desk.”
“Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent.”
“It is an unforgivable failure that under Tinubu’s watch, the Niger Delta has been thrown back into an era of violent unrest and instability — undoing the hard-won peace secured by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Years of progress have been recklessly erased in pursuit of selfish political calculations.”
“If federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President bears full responsibility. Punishing the people of Rivers State just to serve the political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu’s enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms.”