Lateef Fagbemi, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), has disclosed that the declaration of emergency rule in Rivers State was a decisive step that protected Governor Siminalayi Fubara from imminent impeachment by the suspended House of Assembly faction loyal to FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike. According to Fagbemi, the political standoff had reached a dangerous tipping point.
Nigeria’s Attorney General and Justice Minister, Lateef Fagbemi, stepped into the fray on Wednesday, addressing reporters at the State House in Abuja to defend the contentious state of emergency clamped on Rivers State. He framed it as a tough but necessary call, arguing that President Bola Tinubu had no choice but to act decisively to steady a region teetering on the edge.
The backdrop to Fagbemi’s remarks was Tinubu’s dramatic move the previous night. On Tuesday evening, the president took to the airwaves, announcing a state of emergency in Rivers, an oil-rich state long plagued by political turbulence. In a sweeping decision, he sidelined Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, and the entire State House of Assembly, suspending them for six months. To fill the void, Tinubu tapped retired Vice Admiral Ibokete Ibas to take the helm as administrator, tasked with steering Rivers through the storm.
Fagbemi didn’t shy away from the political undertones, admitting the emergency rule might look like a calculated compromise to some. But he insisted it was about restoring order in a state where governance had hit a wall, a move he said was critical to safeguarding Nigeria’s broader stability amid rising tensions.
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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.
“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.
He said that he would agree that, rather than allowing the impeachment process to continue — which, in the end, would have resulted in both the governor and the deputy governor leaving office and being out for the rest of the four-year term — it was better to seek an alternative.
