State of Emergency: It’s all about Rivers’ money – Anabs Sara-Igbe

Sara-Igbe, who spoke on the Morning Show, an Arise TV programme, also said Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s suspension was an attack on the people of Rivers. Excerpts:

What is your reaction to developments in Rivers State, the suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and declaration of a state of emergency as well as its implications for the politics in Rivers?

This is not the first time a state of emergency has been declared. As spokesman (Dr Reuben Abati) for former President Goodluck Jonathan, a situation like this came up. In three states, a state of emergency was declared. When you (Abati) were asked why the president did not sack the governors, you made it clear that the constitution does not empower Mr President to sack or suspend elected representatives or governors in the case of a state of emergency.

Mr President relied on Section 305. If you look at Section 305 all through, Section 305 should also apply in the Northern part of Nigeria where we had war. In the case of Rivers State, there is no war, no fight, the whole place is quiet, and yet the state of emergency was declared. Not only that, an elected governor was suspended, the House of Assembly was also suspended. Somehow, this is not proper. It is an illegal action. The constitution did not empower Mr President in any way. I have looked at the condition under which a governor can be removed. This was not part of the conditions in the constitution. But I will tell you why Mr President may have taken this action. One, Mr President, seems to be very desperate to whip opponents to their nails.

Wike is the hatchet man of Mr President. Last week, he came to Rivers State like a president. He came with the military, the army, the police, the navy, the air force, the DSS, gunboats, airplanes, tanks, artillery, all were mobilised for a visit of a minister, with the intention of causing a crisis so that this state of emergency could be declared. Mr President met with the two of them and set up an agreement. In that agreement, Governor Siminalayi Fubara was asked to withdraw his case from the court. He did but the other party refused to withdraw their case. It is like two men carrying guns. You asked one man to drop his gun and the other man refused to drop his gun and you did not care. You don’t blame him and you ask him to shoot the man and they shot him. That is how they got the Supreme Court judgment they are talking about.

Mr President accused Siminalayi of not implementing the agreement. If you look at it closely, nowhere in the world where a man who has resigned will be forced to come back and the governor will accept him. But the governor accepted. When he was told to accept the House of Assembly members that have decamped from their party, he (Fubara) did. All the conditions, he (Fubara) complied with it. Yet you are not satisfied. The Rivers State elders looked at it and some of us felt, no. These eight conditions were not good for the state. So we went to court. Those things we were telling Mr Governor not to do that he applied are the ones that are now witch haunting him. You went to the Supreme Court with the same eight-point agenda. You asked the judges to write exactly what you wanted and they did for you. The governor was willing to implement the Supreme Court judgment and was ready to do that and they kept saying they wouldn’t accept it. Mr President never blamed them.

PANDEF went to see Mr President and I was among them. Mr President blamed the governor, he never blamed the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike. Two people are fighting and if you want to make peace, what you would have done is to say: ‘Okay, I will fire my minister.’ At least you have the power to fire a minister that has been causing confusion not only in the Niger Delta, also in the North and in the South-East. You did not fire him, but you could fire the governor that you do not have power to fire. These are things that are obvious. Now, other governors will be watching. Today, it is the turn of Siminalayi Fubara. He (President Bola Tinubu) will apply it to the other states, particularly the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, states.

National Assembly members are there, and the law says they have to confirm. But in this case, he has also gone contrary to the constitution. He has violated the constitution. And he is asking the National Assembly to approve for him that he violated the constitution and they all accepted it. If the National Assembly now thinks this is a president that they can trust, I worry, because definitely he will go after them.

If you are saying that you are not happy with the decision the president has taken, what would you have expected him to do when you made calls for him to come in to intervene in the crisis? How would you have wanted the president to intervene?

We are not against him intervening. It is like a father who has two children fighting. You must be fair to both children. You cannot beat one and leave the other causing trouble. It is not possible. It is not right. A father must be fair to all his children. You cannot love one and show the other child that I love this one more than you. In the context of declaring a state of emergency, nobody has quarrelled with the president because he has that power under Section 305.

However, you don’t have any power in the Nigerian constitution from Section 182, 183, 188, 189, where it is mentioned how a governor or a deputy governor can be removed from office. You do not have such powers. Nothing like that to say Mr President has the power to suspend or remove a governor. When you infringe on the constitution, people will tell you. I am not a lawyer, but this is elementary law that everyone knows. The Attorney General has not advised him properly . This means democracy is at risk. Our democracy is at risk because you must stand by the truth. You are suspending a governor, an elected governor of Rivers State, and you are not suspending or sacking the minister who is fomenting all the problems. He (president) can declare a state of emergency, but he has no constitutional power to suspend the governor.

His minister who is causing the whole trouble should be sacked. The other day, this man came and abused everybody and told Nigerians openly that it is not only the Ijaw that can bomb pipelines, adding that Ogoni can bomb pipelines, Etche can bomb pipelines, Ikwerre can bomb pipelines. Within the period he has been fomenting problems, Ogoni has bombed pipelines, as he promised. He has sent people to blow pipelines in the Omoku area, as he said. Yet, you are leaving him and you are crucifying a man, an innocent man, because he is peace-loving, because he is quiet, because he is not fighting, and you allow this man who insulted everybody, insulted Niger Delta as a whole and insulted Ijaw nation.

You said: ‘Oh, Tompolo is the one looking after pipelines,’ so you want to blow pipelines in Ogoni so that you crucify Tompolo because you hate Ijaw. And Mr President is there watching these things.

Can you provide me with evidence that Wike is behind the bombing of pipelines?

I will give you the facts. A witch said a child would die today or tomorrow, and tomorrow the child died. That is what empirical facts are. Wike said on national television that Ogoni could bomb pipelines. Here is a man who came to a small community in Rivers State with over 700 soldiers, a DSS, gunboats, airplanes, jets, fire jets. What did he want? Was he going to war? The man wanted a state of emergency by all means. That was why he did what he did.

What are the elders in the state doing? Where is Fubara, as we speak? Have you spoken to him?

First, the Supreme Court said don’t release money until Fubara presents the budget. Fubara has been trying to present a budget, but he was prevented. The Supreme Court has not said anything. Money is released to somebody, a stranger, a complete stranger, who came illegally. And their interest is nothing but the money. Otherwise, why not be patient?

The state has funds that they can use to run it. We have an internally generated fund that can run the state. When you saw that this man was commissioning projects every day, all you needed to do was to stall him. And you brought a stranger, illegally. You have no legal right to suspend the governor. You have no legal right to suspend state funds. You brought somebody, and you released money to him. We have not seen Fubara, and nobody has communicated with Fubara. We do not know what they have done to Fubara. We do not know where Fubara is. We have tried to reach him, but we cannot reach him (as at Thursday). He is in danger. We want Nigerians to know that Fubara’s life is in danger.

Until we see Fubara speak face-to-face on television, we have not seen him. We have not heard from him. With all sincerity, ask anybody whether they have heard from him (Fubara). He was locked up in the Government House. We only see on social media that he has been released from the Government House. The Rivers people are worried. This is a war against Rivers State, not a war against Fubara.

Fubara has done so well, and Rivers’ people are happy with him. If Nigerians keep quiet and allow this thing to happen, it will happen in other places. And what are we inviting? We are talking about democracy. This is not a democratic government. This is a dictatorial government. And if this dictatorship is allowed to stand, then the country is finished. As regards whether we are going to see the administrator, Rivers elders are not willing to do so. We are saying that is an illegality and we cannot join illegality. We cannot dine with illegality. We will continue to protest until the right thing is done in accordance with the law.

Is it possible to imagine that even Wike himself is a loser or a victim in this matter?

You may not know the background to this issue. Just on Monday, the Federal High Court sat in Port Harcourt. Martins Amaewhule, which is the Wike faction, brought a certified true copy of the Supreme Court judgment and asked the court to strike out the case. The judge said no, he wants to hear the case on its merits. And the judge had both sides and said he would give judgment on the 15th of next month. The moment they came out from court, what we heard was, they were serving an impeachment notice.

When they realised that they could not go through with impeachment, despite the fact that they had the number, the next thing they thought of was the commando style – a state of emergency, bundle the governor away, I will take over the government and grab the money. They are interested in Rivers’ money and they have taken the money that the Supreme Court said nobody should touch until the governor presents a budget. The governor has written to them through the Secretary of Government. On his own (Fubara), he has written to them. He went to their house, their Assembly quarters and it was locked out. Nigerians are seeing it.

When they saw that things were not going the way they wanted, all they did was a non-constitutional coup, to remove the governor. What else do we want? If Wike was honourable, he would resign. He is not causing problems to Rivers alone. The North is angry because of Wike, the way he communicates with them. The South-East is angry because of Wike, and the way he communicates with them. He insulted the Niger Delta, thinking the Niger Delta would be happy, and they would support Jonathan. Former President Goodluck Jonathan lost his second tenure because of Wike. It is because of Wike that former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, left with five other governors from the PDP. And Jonathan lost the election.

Do you think President Tinubu will survive under this condition? He has created enemies for him. The next enemy he will create is the West. He will create an enemy between the West and Tinubu.  Mr President is supporting whatever Wike is doing. What we are saying is that if the president is sincere, then Wike should be sacked. Then we will know that he is sincere. Wike is the fomentor of all the problems in the Niger Delta and across the country.