Emergency rule saved Fubara from impeachment, says Fagbemi

Lateef Fagbemi, the attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, says Siminalayi Fubara, the suspended governor of Rivers, would have been impeached by the lawmakers if President Bola Tinubu had not declared a state of emergency.

Fagbemi told journalists in Abuja on Wednesday that the state of emergency halted the house of assembly’s impeachment proceedings against the governor and his deputy.

On Tuesday, Tinubu declared a state of emergency in Rivers over political and security instability in the state.

He also suspended Fubara and Ngozi Odu, the deputy governor, and all members of the Rivers house of assembly.

Before the emergency rule was announced, the state house of assembly had issued a notice of “gross misconduct” against Fubara and his deputy.

Fagbemi said the emergency rule declared by the president could be seen as a strategic manoeuvre that prevented the imminent impeachment of Fubara.

“About compromise and replacement. It appears so. Don’t forget, I think yesterday (Tuesday), there was a notice of impeachment from the house of assembly,” he said.

“If that impeachment had been allowed to take its full course, then the governor would have lost entirely and completely. So, in a way, if you say it’s a compromise.

“I will agree that instead of allowing the impeachment process to continue, which in the end, would have seen both the governor and the deputy governor out of office and would have been out for the entirety of the four-year term with the remainder of what we have.”

He defended the president for declaring a state of emergency in Rivers, noting that he “made a very bold decision.”

“We were all there when he addressed the public and chronicled all the facts from Genesis to Revelation,” he added.