Fubara counters Tinubu's accusations, blames Wike for attacks on oil pipelines

The suspended Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara has countered President Bola Tinubu’s accusations that he (Mr Fubara) failed to prevent militants from attacking oil pipelines in the state.

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PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Mr Tinubu declared a state of emergency in the Southern state in a nationwide broadcast on Tuesday.

The president also suspended Governor Fubara, Deputy Governor Ngozi Odu, and all the House of Assembly members for an initial six months.

He cited “the disturbing incidents” in the state in the last 24 hours, including explosions and vandalisation of petroleum pipelines linked to the political crises in the state, as the basis for his action.

Nigeria’s House of Representatives approved the declaration of a state of emergency in the southern state on Thursday.

The Senate would later follow suit, approving the emergency rule with minor changes.

Mr Tinubu, while declaring the state of emergency, accused Mr Fubara of not doing anything to prevent militants from carrying out their threats of blowing off oil installations.

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The president further accused the suspended governor of demolishing the Rivers State House of Assembly complex without rebuilding it after about 14 months.

He blamed Mr Fubara for failing to re-present the 2025 Budget estimates to the assembly for approval despite a Supreme Court judgment which ordered him to do so.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, later accused Mr Fubara of “telegraphing” militants to attack oil installations in the state, considering that the governor did not disown the attack.

Fubara counters allegations

But in a statement on Thursday night by his spokesperson, Nelson Chukwudi, Mr Fubara refuted some of the allegations.

The suspended governor said he has nothing to do with threats and attacks on oil facilities by suspected militants and that he did not “telegraph” militants to attack any facility in the state.

He suggested that the militants, like some other Niger Delta leaders and groups, including Ijaw National Congress, were reacting to a comment by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.

Mr Wike, a former governor of the state, said during a press briefing last week that Ijaw people “were a minority in Rivers and other South-south states except Bayelsa.”

The FCT minister has since claimed he was misinterpreted.

“Most of the Ijaw groups and leaders even demanded an apology from the FCT minister, which he rebuffed,” Mr Fubara said in the statement.

“It is clearly untrue that somebody who has all the while preached peace and non-violence, even in the face of extreme provocations, would be ‘telegraphing attacks on oil pipelines’ and breaching the peace he has worked so hard to promote and sustain for the good of the people of the state,” he said.

The governor, on the allegation of demolishing the state assembly complex, said he acted based on “professional advice and guidance.”

He said, contrary to Mr Tinubu’s claim, the demolished complex was being rebuilt by his administration.

Mr Fubara claimed that Mr Wike had repeatedly criticised the assembly complex, describing it as a “dilapidated” structure with a leaking roof.

The governor said the FCT minister, in August 2022, also challenged the lawmakers to reject requests to rebuild it to ensure a conducive legislative environment for them.

“It must be noted that immediately after the incident of October 29, 2023, and experts’ reports, the government decided to heed the age-old demands of the lawmakers to rebuild the facility and promptly demolished the dilapidated structure to give way to a state-of-the-art assembly complex, which is now nearly 80 per cent completed,” he said.

‘Wike’s supporters launched attacks on LGAs’

Mr Fubara accused Mr Wike’s supporters of carrying out violent attacks on some local government council secretariats on 5 October 2024 during the local government council election in the state.

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The governor said, during the attacks, some facilities in the council areas were razed by the supporters without any reprisals from his own supporters.

“It is also pertinent to draw the attention of security agencies to the fact that LGAs where those attacks were unleashed are the same places that have repeatedly witnessed violence perpetrated by detractors of the Governor Fubara-led administration,” he said.