The proclamation of a state of emergency in Rivers state has been criticized by former vice president Atiku Abubakar, who has called it an attack on democracy that needs to be strongly denounced.
Reacting on his verified Facebook page, the former vice president said the declaration is a political ploy that was made in bad faith.
He asserts that President Bola Tinubu cannot avoid accountability for the crisis in Rivers State that his administration has either caused or failed to stop.
He further noted that if federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President should bear full responsibility, and rather than punish the people of Rivers State with a state of emergency.
Atiku said, “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 Tinubu’s enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms.”