The Federal Government has yet to be served a suit reportedly filed at the Supreme Court to challenge the emergency rule declared by President Bola Tinubu in Rivers State on March 18, 2025.
The suit was reportedly filed by seven governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The plaintiffs in the suit were listed as governors of Bauchi, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Enugu, Osun, Plateau, and Zamfara.
They want the Supreme Court to reverse Tinubu’s emergency rule on Rivers State and to also void the six-month suspension he imposed on Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Prof Ngozi Odu, and the members of the state House of Assembly.
The seven governors, through their attorneys general, urged the Supreme Court to declare that “the President has no powers whatsoever or authority to suspend a democratically elected governor and deputy governor of a state in the federation of Nigeria, under the guise of or pursuant to the proclamation of a state of emergency in any state of the federation, including the states represented by the plaintiffs.”
Listed as defendants were President Tinubu and the National Assembly.
However, nearly a week after the suit was reportedly filed at the Supreme Court, a state counsel in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja confided in The PUNCH that the suit had yet to be served on the Federal Government.
The official, who works with the Attorney General of the Federation but spoke anonymously for lack of authorisation to speak to the press, said, “Here at the Ministry of Justice, we have yet to be served with the governors’ suit that they said they filed before the Supreme Court to challenge Fubara’s suspension. Immediately after we heard about the suit, we prepared our response.
“We have our response ready because for three days we started reading books to prepare but we have yet to be served. We are still waiting.
“The AGF has not even been in town. After the (emergency rule) declaration, he travelled out of the country but our ears are on the ground and we know he has not been served.”
The revelation by the Federal Government official comes as the Chief Press Secretary to one of the PDP governors in the South-West hinted that the suit purportedly filed was a ruse.
“Based on my discussion with our attorney general, the case has not been filed. The report that the suit was filed was sponsored for a reason,” the CPS said.
Last week while speaking on the Rivers State situation, Bayelsa State Governor, Duoye Diri, who is the Chairman of the South-South Governors’ Forum, was silent on the filing of a suit.
Rather, he harped on the call for the Federal Government to urgently reverse the Rivers emergency rule, reinstate Governor Fubara and set up a panel to reconcile Fubara and the state lawmakers.
Meanwhile, former Rivers State Head of Civil Service, Dr George Nweke, has come under fire by his kinsmen from Omuma Local Government Area over his claim that Governor Fubara sponsored the bombing of the state House of Assembly complex in October 2023.
Nweke, who recently resigned his appointment from government, held a press conference on Friday, stating that Fubara sponsored the destruction of the Assembly complex to stop the move by the lawmakers to impeach him.
He claimed to have witnessed a bag of money being handed over to a former leader of the Assembly, who later became Fubara’s Chief of Staff, Edison Ehie, to attack the Assembly Complex along Moscow Road, Port Harcourt.
He said, “I was there with them when a bag of money was handed over to Edison for that operation, though I do not know the amount inside. I want to tell the people of Rivers State today that the House of Assembly Complex on Moscow Road was deliberately brought down by Edison Ehie under the instructions of Governor Siminalayi Fubara. I challenge him to an open confrontation, and I will provide more details.”
However, Governor Fubara refuted the claim, saying the ex-HoS had been influenced by his political opponents.
Addressing newsmen in Port Harcourt on Sunday, the leader of the “Concerned Omuma Stakeholders, Maximus Nwafor expressed sadness that Nweke allowed himself to be used as a tool for destruction.
Nwafor said, “A sad day for the people of Omuma Local Government Area and Rivers State in general as Dr. George Nweke displays his true nature.
“It is with a heavy heart that we, as Omuma Local Government stakeholders, address you today in reaction to the actions of one of our sons, Dr. George Nweke.
“We are not altogether astounded by Dr. George Nweke’s recent propaganda against our dear Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
“We never imagined that it will take this dimension of peddling blatant falsehood against an innocent man, who is his benefactor and who has prioritised the well-being of Omuma after eight years of horrors of the last administration.”
Nwafor, who is the immediate past Commissioner for Energy and Natural Resources, said they were aware that shortly after Nweke’s resignation, he reached out to Governor Fubara and his Chief of Staff for financial assistance.
“We have it on good authority that Dr. George Nweke, who, a few days ago, reached out to the Chief of Staff and Governor for financial assistance, out of impatience resorted to other means to get it, including blackmailing the governor and some top officials in the state.
“From his press briefing, it is obvious that he has been compromised to proclaim this level of falsehood.
“We state categorically that there is no element of truth in all Dr. George Nweke has said in his press briefing, as he was not a member of the local government inner caucus, much more being part of the state caucus.”
Fubara’s aide sues ex-Hos
Also, Fubara’s Chief of Staff, Edison Ehie, said on Sunday that he had instructed his lawyer to sue Nwaeke, over claims that they orchestrated the attack on the House of Assembly complex.
Ehie, who was the former Assembly leader before his appointment, made the statement when he was featured as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He said, “I will not take issues completely with George Nwaeke because I had already instructed my lawyer to file issues of criminal libel against him, and I hope he is very prepared to come and substantiate his claim and his allegations if it were.
“Mind you, I am not holding brief for my principal in this interview. But it’s very important to clarify that I had no hand nor was I a part of the burning down of the Rivers State House of Assembly. Like everyone else, I woke up in the early hours of October 30, 2023, to hear of it.
“It is unfortunate that George Nweke, to satisfy his hunger or emergency reaches at his age having served for over 35 years, can be bullied into making such allegations. Clearly, to note that the world has seen that he was not speaking from his right frame of mind, moment after his interview, we watched where his wife, who supposedly should be the closest person to him, was interviewed crying and mentioning names in that video.”(Punch)
