ABUJA — The Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, said yesterday the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, played no role in the political crisis in River State which resulted in President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency on Tuesday.
He also said the federal allocations of River State, withheld amid the crisis, would be released to the sole administrator appointed to take charge of affairs of the state, Vice Admiral Ibok Ibas, retd, by President Tinubu, if he requests for it.
The AGF equally said the President’s declaration of a state of emergency was timely and meant to avert an implosion in the state, alleging that the suspended governor of the state, Siminalayi Fubara, teleguided militants to blow up pipelines in the state.
Fagbemi, who stated this while briefing State House correspondents at the presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday, said: “There are occasions when, especially when it comes to national issues, we have to come out plainly. And sincerely, where do you put the minister of FCT in this case? Was he the one who asked for the demolition of the House of Assembly?
‘’Was he the one who said the governor should not present his budget to the House of Assembly? Was he the one who advised the governor not to go through the House of Assembly for purposes of ratifying the commissioner nominees?
“I don’t know because if you want to look at a case, you look at the facts that have been presented, the Supreme Court made this critical findings. FCT minister did not feature, whatever the situation. Assuming he featured, he would have featured, maybe on the side of the legislator.
“But what you have here is let everybody go home for the first six months, so I don’t see his hand here. I will encourage us to read the judgment of the Supreme Court. There were about 11 or 12 findings against the governor.
“What sentiment are we bringing to bear in this matter? I don’t think there is any sentiment. What remains is if the National Assembly feels that the President has not done well, then you won’t have the two thirds majority required to validate his action.
“Certainly, you know it’s like a situation in which the veto usually is on the side of Mister president when a bill is presented. But the converse is the same here, that it is the president, who is initiating a move to declare a state of emergency.
“He has to make that move. He made that clear in his speech, in his broadcast yesterday (Tuesday), that I’ve made this decision and referred the matter to the National Assembly. It is for the National Assembly to say now we veto. That is to say, we don’t give you approval.
“Since the National Assembly is still in session, we expect that within 48 hours, something will come out for it. So whoever has any misgiving, any concern, I will say, should channel it to the National Assembly to say, don’t give the required two-thirds approval required, otherwise we should all, like I said, continue to put up our patriotism cap.”
Explaining the genesis of the problem, the AGF stated further: “Let me start on a note of how we got to where we are today. How did it all start? That is about the genesis. We all know how we got here.
‘’Since 2023, I think towards the end of 2023, things have not been going on well to the extent that the governor took the law into his hands and demolished the House of Assembly.
“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. So 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, like I said, and it is no longer news, constituted about three or four members as the House of Assembly, and gave them preferential treatment, move them to Government House to be doing legislative functions. This situation got to the court.
“There were about 10,15, 16 cases, and at the end of the day, the Supreme Court came out and made very profound findings of breaches of the constitution, mainly against the governor. You see, you rise or fall on the basis of what you took to court and what decision of the court is taken on it.
“The court came to the decision that the governor had long anticipated wrongly that he might be impeached, and because of that, he knew that the House of Assembly was a critical structure, or yes, organ to do that, brought it down. 14 months after that, there was no effort to rebuild the House of Assembly.
“The government stands on a tripod – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, you have made the functioning of government impossible. It is not enough for the legislature, 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.
“These are some of the findings the Supreme Court made. And at the end of the day, the Supreme Court came to a decision that the behavior of the governor was like a despot, and that as the situation was, there was no government in Rivers.
“If there was no government in Rivers what else are we looking for? I’m so sorry for bringing in this, this issue in the Bible. They asked Jesus Christ, are You the Son of God? And he said, Yes. Then others chorused, what further evidence do we need from this man.
“So, the stage is set, but no action was taken immediately in the expectation or hope that good sense will prevail, the governor will create an enabling environment, and that the House of Assembly too would be reasonable enough to ensure that the people of Rivers actually got a return for their voting of both members of the House of Assembly and the governor and other elected officials to enjoy dividends of democracy.
“We have about two years into the administration in the state. Now, when do you think he (President Tinubu) should have come in? Is it when everything has been destroyed? I don’t think so.
“I think the President has acted timeously. He has given the opportunity to all the parties involved, to make amends. Before then he had had to assemble them, he had tried to mediate.’’
The AGF also alleged that Governor Siminalayi Fubara tele-guided militants to blow up pipelines in the state.
He said if the governor was not culpable, he did not also do anything to dissuade the militants from taking action against the critical national infrastructure.
He said: “We are in a democracy. So know then, there were what I will call telegraphing of the militants, I will say, by the governor. And the reason I said so was when he beckon to them that, oh, he will let them know when it was time to act to the militant, let us say it was wrong.
“Did he come out to disown them? The answer is no. And a week after, they swung into action, you see or witness vandalization of oil pipelines.
“Don’t also forget that before now, that is when this government came into office, Nigeria was producing about 900,000, barrel of oil a day, and with the efforts and all the ingenuity the President had, he ensured that the production rose to about 1.5million barrel per day. That’s about 45 per cent increase.
“Governors were smiling home at the end of the month with about 60% increase in their take home from the federation account. Then somebody rose or encouraged or became inactive when he was supposed to act. There was not a word dissuading the threat.
“Today, Nigeria, maybe with the efforts of the the president, agriculturewill come in. But as a today, we still rely largely on oil. For anyone to touch these pipelines, he is not the enemy of only Rivers, he is the enemy of Nigeria.
“All Nigerians, all the 36 states share in what comes in from the production of this oil. And I believe the decision of the 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 third in the series is about the security situation in that place. You know, if he (Tinubu) had waited maybe a day longer, only God knows what would have followed. And as a result of that, he came out to say, ‘I am not only the head of state, I’m Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces’. He declared a state of emergency.
“Let us say it was wrong. Did he (Fubara) come out to disown them? The answer is no. And a week after, they swung into action, you see or witness vandalization of oil pipelines.”
He said the judgment of the Supreme Court was the base upon which Tinubu imposed the state of emergency in Rivers State to protect the critical infrastructure in the state, observing that the governor and members of the state House of Assembly had to be suspended because they had failed to ensure a conducive atmosphere for governance in the state.
He pushed back on criticisms that the president’s action was hasty, noting that people were living in fear, while others were dying.
The AGF also said the declaration of state of emergency in Rivers State was a warning signal to other states, giving the impression that the government would invoke stricter sanctions.
“The second one is about removing the governor, removing the deputy governor. You see, you decide each case on its own peculiar facts and circumstances. Who are the people involved? Who are the parties involved in this saga?
“They are the governor, members of the House of Assembly. So who else should have been affected? I’ve heard this funny argument. I’m sorry for saying it. It’s funny because it doesn’t make any sense to me.
“Oh, that the president should have just gone there to secure the pipelines and then come back when some people are there encouraging vandals to come in. The action of the president is like, you know what happened is the effect of a fundamental cause, and you cannot be treating the effect in order to cure the cause. What was the cause? The governor and members of the House of Assembly.
“So you have to behave responsibly, and you must have the gut. If it happens again, I will encourage the president to do the same, maybe this time with even greater vigour and vitality. So the question of separating or treating or giving preferential treatment to anybody does not arise.
‘’You give preferential treatment to anybody, you are giving preferential treatment to illegality. Just call a spade a spade. This is where I believe we should put up our patriotism cap. It shouldn’t be about individual; it should not be about anybody, it should be about the entity called Nigeria. But in this case, Rivers State,. So it is River State turn today.
“It can be any body’s turn tomorrow. Let the signal be clearly signed for those who want to foment trouble, who want to make the practice of democracy and enjoyment of dividends of democracy a mirage, to think twice.
“So I answered the question by saying, I return the resounding no to the quest that the governor and deputy governor should have been spared, or the members of the House of Assembly, they were all in it.”