State of Emergency: Tinubu’s intervention saved Rivers from anarchy – Group

The Rivers Peace Congress, RPC, has claimed that the declaration of a state of emergency by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu averted anarchy and is at present yielding optimistic outcomes, particularly in restoring peace, order, and unity to the as soon as politically unstable state.

The RPC described President Tinubu’s intervention as daring, well timed, and essential to guard democracy, lives, and public property from being eroded by private energy struggles.

In an announcement issued on Friday and signed by its nationwide president, Comrade Randy Prince, the group acknowledged the president’s choice to droop Governor Siminalayi Fubara and appoint a Sole Administrator, following what it described as “months of legislative disobedience, governance breakdown, and brewing anarchy”.

The assertion stated, “The intervention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Rivers State got here at a time when the very cloth of governance was in danger,” the assertion learn.

“The breakdown of belief between the manager and legislature had reached harmful ranges. We had a governor who defied court docket orders, ignored constitutional checks, and appeared extra considering combating perceived enemies than in governing.

The state was on the brink. However with the state of emergency in place, we are actually seeing calm return, establishments operate once more, and residents breathe a sigh of aid.”

RPC stated there’s now a visual enchancment in inter-agency cooperation, public service supply, and battle decision, particularly in Port Harcourt and surrounding native councils.

“Rivers folks can now fall asleep with each eyes closed. Markets have reopened with out concern of politically motivated violence. Civil servants are receiving their salaries with out tales. The ministries are working, and public tasks have resumed. The paralysis that plagued governance has been lifted. And the credit score goes to President Tinubu for placing the curiosity of the folks above politics,” the assertion added.

Prince famous that whereas some critics could describe the transfer as undemocratic, the larger image was the preservation of nationwide unity and to salvage the state from complete collapse.

“Allow us to be trustworthy with ourselves, Rivers State was sinking right into a constitutional disaster. The judiciary was beneath siege. The state meeting had grow to be a theatre of battle. The governor, by his conduct, remoted himself from elders and even the rule of legislation. President Tinubu acted, not out of malice, however in defence of peace and the democratic order.

“Ibas has confirmed himself to be a bridge builder, he has reached out to all factions with dignity and respect. He’s not chasing headlines or combating ghosts. He’s targeted on restoring service supply, rebuilding establishments, and giving Rivers folks a way of belonging once more. That’s the type of management we want in occasions of disaster.”

Within the assertion, RPC urged worldwide observers and rights organisations to place context earlier than criticism and perceive that extraordinary occasions typically require extraordinary choices to protect peace and order.

“We invite the worldwide group to see Rivers not by means of the lens of propaganda however by means of the actual experiences of its residents,” the assertion stated.

“Those that are shouting dictatorship from afar didn’t dwell right here when authorities places of work had been beneath siege and 26 lawmakers had been locked out of the meeting thereby denying 1000’s of Rivers folks illustration,” Prince stated.

“They weren’t right here when authorities appointments turned instruments of revenge. We’re right here, and we will say that the emergency has helped us take a breath and begin afresh.”

The group known as on Rivers elites, conventional rulers, and the enterprise group to rally behind the Sole Administrator and assist the federal authorities’s roadmap to full political reconciliation and eventual return to democratic elections within the state.

“This isn’t the time to divide the state additional; that is the time for therapeutic. We name on all stakeholders to place Rivers first. We can not afford to permit private egos or ethnic loyalties to derail the progress we’ve got began seeing. The Tinubu administration has proven that it has the real curiosity of Rivers at coronary heart. Allow us to work with it.”