State of emergency: Military takes over Rivers government house<\/p>\n
Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his family members are being held hostage at the Government House, Port-Harcourt, by a contingent of heavily armed soldiers Tuesday night, Peoples Gazette has learnt.<\/p>\n
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The development comes moments after President Bola Tinubu invoked Section 180 of the Nigerian Constitution to proclaim a state of emergency in Rivers. The Nigerian leader based\u00a0his\u00a0controversial\u00a0move on a prolonged and rapidly escalating political feud led by state lawmakers loyal to Nyesom Wike, who commenced impeachment proceedings\u00a0against Mr Fubara last week to settle scores in his fallout with Mr Wike, who engineered Mr Fubara\u2019s election in 2023 despite corruption charges.<\/p>\n
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Rivers government sources told\u00a0The Gazette that soldiers carrying out the president\u2019s instructions on declaring the state of emergency barricaded all entrances and exits to the government house immediately after the president\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n
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Attempts by Mr Fubara and his family to pack their belongings out of the Government House have been rebuffed by\u00a0the soldiers, who suppressed all movements around the premises.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe are being held hostage,\u201d\u00a0an affected official\u00a0told The Gazette from the scene on Tuesday night.\u00a0\u201cThey said they don\u2019t have instruction to let anyone leave the premises.\u201d<\/p>\n
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It was unclear whether the soldiers implemented their duties as instructed or were\u00a0overzealous in following specific orders.<\/p>\n
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Spokespersons for the Nigerian Army and Defence Headquarters did not immediately return requests seeking comments about the soldiers\u2019 treatment of the Fubaras.<\/p>\n
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Mr Tinubu\u2019s declaration to suspend the feuding parties from office for six months, effective Tuesday,\u00a0 sparked furious debates across social media as netizens argued whether the president had constitutional grounds to suspend an elected governor whom the state lawmakers have not yet impeached. Efforts to impeach Mr Fubara began on Monday, barely 24 hours before Mr Tinubu imposed an emergency ordinance.<\/p>\n
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Lawyers like Inibehe Effiong and Folarin \u2018Falz\u2019 Falana have excoriated the president for taking the law into his own hands without regard for the Constitution\u2019s position.<\/p>\n
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The president named the\u00a0retired chief of naval staff, Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, as the military administrator in Rivers in the interim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
State of emergency: Military takes over Rivers government house Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his family members are being held hostage at the Government House, Port-Harcourt, by a contingent of heavily armed soldiers Tuesday night, Peoples Gazette has learnt. The development comes moments after President Bola Tinubu invoked Section 180 of the Nigerian Constitution to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,18],"tags":[82,750,39],"class_list":["post-145596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-news","tag-fubara","tag-rivers","tag-wike"],"yoast_head":"\n