Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described the declaration of emergency in Rivers State as political manipulation and in bad faith.
On Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu declared a state of emergency in the oil-rich state for six months to contain the protracted political crisis in the state.
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In a statement on his X handle, Atiku said President Tinubu has been a vested partisan actor in the crisis.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election added that the president’s refusal or calculated negligence in preventing the escalation of the crisis is nothing short of disgraceful.
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“Beyond the political scheming in Rivers, the brazen security breaches that led to the condemnable destruction of national infrastructure in the state land squarely on the president’s desk.
“Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent.
“It is an unforgivable failure that under Tinubu’s watch, the Niger Delta has been thrown back into an era of violent unrest and instability — undoing the hard-won peace secured by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Years of progress have been recklessly erased in pursuit of selfish political calculations,” Atiku said.
Read Atiku’s full statement
The declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State reeks of political manipulation and outright bad faith.
Anyone paying attention to the unfolding crisis knows that Bola Tinubu has been a vested partisan actor in the political turmoil engulfing Rivers. His blatant refusal or calculated negligence in preventing this escalation is nothing short of disgraceful.
Beyond the political scheming in Rivers, the brazen security breaches that led to the condemnable destruction of national infrastructure in the state land squarely on the president’s desk.
Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent.
It is an unforgivable failure that under Tinubu’s watch, the Niger Delta has been thrown back into an era of violent unrest and instability — undoing the hard-won peace secured by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Years of progress have been recklessly erased in pursuit of selfish political calculations.
If federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President bears full responsibility. Punishing the people of Rivers State just to serve the political gamesmanship between the governor and @officialABAT’s enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms. – AA
