Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has spoken out against the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State, describing it as political manipulation and outright bad faith.
In a statement on his verified x account, Atiku said, “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.”
He pointed out that beyond the political issues in Rivers, the brazen security breaches leading to the destruction of national infrastructure in the state are the President’s responsibility. “Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent,” he added.
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Atiku condemned the situation further, stating, “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.”
Furthermore, Atiku emphasized that if federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President must bear full responsibility. He criticized the decision to punish the people of Rivers State by using them as pawns in the political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu’s enablers in the federal government, calling state of emergency in Rivers “nothing less than an assault on democracy.”
